Episode 25: Mass Effect

.(Surface of the planet...)

Armed and ready, the team of Senil, Cmdr. Takuto, Milfeulle, and Lily C. Sherbet. Takuto stood in place and spoke to the angel. "Well? What am I looking at here?"

"A planet," said Senil. With his casual, near emotionless demeanor, it was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or not. Takuto knew it was the former.

"What's so special about it?" the Cmdr. asked.

Senil didn't answer, he just walked forward. Everyone followed. Now, I know what you're thinking (and really, you should be ashamed of yourself); this would be a great time for Anth to screw things up, as per usual. Since he isn't around (I put him on break), someone else will have to do.

"COMMANDER!!!!" came a familiar voice. Takuto had turned around, but found no one. Must'v e been on the comms device he had. "What?" he asked into the machine.

"Someone's inside the ship!" It was Nano-Nano.

"Oh really? Then what's that!?" the screen turned to Karla's tail, noticeable only because she was around the bulkhead. Takuto sighed. "Nano, that's Karla's tail."

"Who's she?"

Takuto put his hand to his face. "Ughhh..."

.(On board the ship...)

He managed to sneak on board. That was too easy, he thought. He noticed most the things that went on when he entered; that one girl with the blue hair was on some kind of comms. device. She kinda creeped him out.

At one point, the girl turned around to his exact position, but saw nothing. He never figured walking on the ceiling would give him such stealth. After what seemed like an hour, the girl went into a storage room of sorts. He went in with her, hoping to find some secluded area where he wouldn't have to walk on the ceiling. She left, but he stayed.

'Wonder if they'd notice?...' he thought.

.(Outside again...)

The planet was eerily calm. Only animals were around. There were signs of civilized life, but there were no indigenous life forms. Another species destroyed, thought Senil. Cmdr. Meyers looked around the empty dwellings and left over scraps of red and black metal that was strewn about.

Every so often, they'd come across a house that was full of about the same thing; either corpses of vague, humanoid aliens, or red scrap metal. Then a large palace structure became visible, and for the first time in quite a LONG time, Senil extended his wings, and in a great burst of wind, took off into the sky.

Up until that point, he hadn't really used them. So to that, everyone just stared.

.(Luxiole storage room...)

Nano-Nano walked in to get an extra stack of medical supplies. Simple. Up until she got that nerve to look up because the lights were slightly dimmed. And she saw him...her...it...whatever it was. For the most part, the creature was white, with a bright grey cloak covering any features out of eyesight. It was hanging by the ceiling by it's feet, holding the cloak up with it.

Plus, it was looking right at her, too. It had a boney metal face, with peepers that more or less resembled a cat's eyes with small hints of skin around the eyes. Nano-Nano's eyes grew wide, and then she ran out, screaming like the little girl she was. After about a minute of screaming, she ran out the door, leaving the creature to itself again.

.(Planet's surface...)

"...Nano-Nano, stop trying to get Karla in trouble," said the Commander, "I know she's weird, being from a planet with technology much less advanced then ours, but she's trying to behave, and she's doing pretty well."

"B-B-B-But-!"

"No buts, Nano-Nano!" and at that, Takuto turned it off. "I can't believe she just can't get along with Karla," he said to himself. Lily took notice. "Um, sir?" she said, "I can hear you. Takuto quickly backed into a tree with a silly frightened face and said, "Y-You heard me!?"

"Well, yeah, you were kinda talking out loud," replied Lily.

Takuto calmed down and sweated a little. 'Man, I just gotta remember to think to myself every once in a while,' he indeed thought.

While this was going on, Senil was checking out the palace. Red scraps of metal were even more abundant around the palace. At the very top of the palace, the signs of a great battle were around.

Someone, or most likely, multiple someones, were here. On a backwater planet like this, he thought. But then again, the evidence suggests that it was more then just backwater. More like a well-sought after Fountain of Youth by the looks of it.

More inspection later, he found the "throne" room. It was the most untouched of the entire planet. Senil felt the surface of the chair. He needed to find out where any, if at all, of the survivors were, and fast.

It was important that he did.

Upon reaching the roof again, his wings spread and he took flight once more.

.(The Commander's position...)

Senil landed next to Karla. "So? Either you found something, or nothing. Which one is it?" asked the Commander himself. Senil crossed his arms and said, "Survivors."

Everyone was aghast; survivors meant something happened.

"Survivors!?" said Karla, "like me?" Senil nodded. Karla thought about how she was saved. Intervention, but maybe this planet had a different sort of method...

Senil motioned for them to follow, and went off to a jog, scanning the ground as if he were following some invisible trail.

Karla and the commander traded looks, but followed soon after.

.(Some ways away...)

They had found something. And what a something it was. A dead creature that was hanging limp from a hole in the side of the palace. Everyone but the angel looked pretty astounded at the whole sight of the thing. An unnatural blend of a slushy moisture combined with the most grotesque foliage they could think of.

What was more unnerving was the sight of an unknown creature--most likely female--at the center of it, as if the creature was "wearing" the monstrosity, though not terribly so. It looked pretty young, and had blue fur. Who knows how long it's been there. It looked recent, but then again, the thing just seemed...supernatural somehow. The grass around it refused to grow.

"Lily," said the Commander, regaining composure, "scan that thing. What the hell is it?" She employed a complicated handheld device and slowly stepped towards the thing. When she got within the area where the grass wouldn't grow, the scanner went off, showing the message "Warning! Warning! Dangerous Biological Entity Detected!" in bold letters.

Lily stopped there and turned a nob on the small panel on the scanner. She looked at the result and it made no sense. "The hell-" she said before Senil spoke, "that is a Bio Virus."

"A what?" asked the Commander, "how do you know?" He shook his head. "If I'm right, then it's my race's technology. The 'Bio Virus' is a very advanced form of biological warfare. It infects a target, almost undetectable, and takes over their body after a prolonged period of time," Senil walked to the thing, even inside the field of no-grass-growing.

"However, it would seem that this one is dead, judging by it's host," he explained. The commander got an idea of what was going on and stood next to Senil. "Hmm...I think I've got everything figured out, but one thing: What killed it?" Indeed, what? Well, aside from the fact the top half of the host's head (Lily pointed out that the cut was too clean, and was made after the host was killed), a burned stab wound was found near the host's mid section. With that solved, the commander walked back. "Back to the ship. Take that thing with us," he commanded, before leaving without a word. Well, except "NOW!!!"

Lily immediately complied, as did Milfie. After a few seconds of not moving, Milfie asked, "Um...can you help out?" Karla said "Sure," and helped. With the snake humanoid, they managed to move the thing...slowly.

Several minutes later...maybe even an hour. By the time they got it onto the ramp into the ship, Senil shook his head, grabbed it with one hand, and started pulling on it, dragging it several times faster then the three girls did. The girls almost fell over by the lack of the thing to push by Senil.

Needless to say, the three girls were surprised at his strength.

.(Bridge of the Luxiole...)

Commander Meyers sat on the captain's seat, contemplating his thoughts. It now started to make sense. His wife Milfie held one of the hands that was in a deep-thought bridge gesture. He held onto her hand while the other hand remained where it was. "Senil," he said at last, "come here." He did so. "Yes?" he asked, not expecting what happened next.

The commander stood firmly, letting go of Milfie's hand (who promptly fell into the seat when he was getting up). "Angels, Senil. Angels like you did it, didn't they?" Senil didn't deny nor confirm, "I'm not blaming you...yet. Not enough evidence. But let's say it was one angel...one that felt something was wrong. Or maybe disgruntled with his current position.

"Two million. That's the estimation of the enemy ships that appeared at ABSOLUTE. Too big for us to handle. They could conquer the galaxy with that number. But we beat them. How many angels does one Archangel command, Senil?"

"..." Senil seemed to hesitate, but maybe just paused, as he said "Two million."

"Exactly as I thought. It didn't seem like the Archangel is alive anymore. Is that right?"

"...Yes," said Senil.

The commander continued. "Whoever did it went on a genocide. I've put it all together. There's a pattern to it all. See this." A hologram of the Milky Way appeared. "Here," he pointed to Ssathra, "Is where it started. This is where it continued, on this planet," he pointed to the planet they were currently on then said, "And, if I'm correct, it continued here. Judging by the planet's retainment of it's population, it also ended here," he then pointed on a planet that was on way towards some pattern.

The hologram turned off and Commander Meyers returned to his seat. "Senil, are you part of the two million that engaged these worlds?" he asked. Senil still didn't answer, but Karla stepped forward and spoke. "What!? How can you accuse him of such a crime!?" she turned to him, "You didn't do it, did you?"

"Well...Karla, I...would be lying if I said I didn't..."

The commander nodded. "Take your helmet off," he said. Senil did precisely that. He took it off and let it drop to the floor with the clang of metal on metal. He told the truth. Senil did have blue, emotionless eyes and long golden hair that he didn't even bother setting it right when it looked all messed up. No, he wasn't commanded to correct it.

He stood again. Commander Meyers inspected him. "So...human," he said, "yet you're not." "No," said Senil, "in fact, far from it."

"Then why did you do it?"

Senil didn't hesitate this time. His voice no longer obscured by his helmet, he still spoke with the same calm, uncaring manner. "I just did."

"Then why are you helping us? Someone tell you do to it?"

"I didn't know it would come to this. Sometimes the purge of a planet is necessary, but..."

"But...what? I'm waiting. Why did they all have to die? Billions died because of you!" he said. Karla objected, but Senil put his hand up. "According to our Archangel, there was something wrong with the Universe...a flaw." "A flaw?..."

Senil continued. "He said that, with this flaw, the Universe would collapse in itself. It wasn't until it was when my lord's--who's name I shall never utter again, for any reason--four right wings turned as black as his soul had become. For you see, angels have no hearts, only souls. And it wasn't until I saved Karla when I realized what this so-called 'flaw' was."

"What was it?" asked Milfeulle, looking very concerned now.

"Sentient thought."

END OF EPISODE 25