Chapter 7: Falling Into Place
Neer floated around the bridge awaiting Der's arrival. There was one last loose end to tie up. The doorway opened and Der entered swiftly. "You wanted to see me, my Tallest?"
"Yes, because it's time for you to tie up that last loose end. Enforcer Xero and Collector Syn. They must die. But please be discreet about the injection." He handed Der the incomplete SHC Serum with the PAK virus. "I trust you will not fail me?"
"Of course my Tallest, I'll see to it at once." And with that he marched out.
"Blor. Have the Resisty soldiers on Planet 66-372 surrendered, or are they ready for their planet to die as well?"
"They have sent a message begging for mercy and swearing loyalty to the Irken Empire my Tallest. They have given in to our might."
"Good. Hahahahaha, begin the organic sweep."
"My Tallest, they surrendered, is that really necessary?"
"Are you disobeying me Blor?" Neer turned to him "They were preparing to defend this planet anyway, they gave up because we decimated their cities. If they truly wanted mercy they would have done so when we arrived, not after having their pathetic non snack making facilities bombarded. Now, Begin the Organic Sweep."
"Of course my Tallest, I apologize, I meant no disrespect, I was simply curious" Blor set himself to the task charging the first volley.
Hours Later In a Secluded Area, Still Aboard The Massive*
"Do you two know why I asked you here?" Der asked calmly trying to hide his wicked intention from the two.
"Make this quick Der, having free time is rare and you're wasting ours." Xero said spooning ice cream into his mouth.
"Sorry, just explain it, Xero can be rude at times" Syn stated before guzzling down a soda.
"Fine, since you're in such a hurry" Der acted without warning grabbing and thrusting the needle in his hand at Xero. He was stopped, first by the spoon Xero was using then he had a bucket of ice cream in his face.
"I think we need to alert the Tallest of this treachery Xero."
"Guards these two are traitors to the Irken Empire" Der yelled wiping his comically ice cream covered face "seize them!"
"That's not happening Syn, run!" Xero pulled his partner and took off running, making Syn drop his soda spilling it on the floor.
"Oh no you doooohooo!" Der tried to pursue, but slipped on the puddle and hit the ground hard. Several guards passed him quickly giving chase to the two traitors.
They ran down hallways and through rooms with the guards barely keeping pace.
"New orders, kill the traitors" Der caught up to them "and seal the doorways, they're trying to get to their ship!"
The guards followed his commands aiming their weapons and firing. Xero turned back, his armor coating his body as a small device constructed on his wrist. As the energy based projectiles got close it switched on creating a light blue energy field stopping the projectiles completely. In the moment that the guards experienced surprise he took off running again to catch up to Syn. Even so Der was right behind them and the guards, not far behind him. They simply began firing down the hallways and corridors, more and more guards joining the pursuit. "Xero, hurry" Syn called out kneeling beside a door. Xero wasted no time and started full on sprinting putting extra distance between himself and the guards. Der ripped his blaster from his side and fired just as Xero crossed the threshold. He slid through the doorway and popped the shield back on as Syn cut a wire slamming and sealing the door shut.
"You just had to jinx it didn't you?" Syn slumped against the wall by the door control.
"What do you mean?"
"We had free time, you brought it up, now it's gone!" Syn was clearly trying to make light of the situation.
Xero smiled and laughed. "I suppose I did. Haha. How far is it from where we parked the ship?"
"Right there" Syn pointed at a hatch. "I told you, I always park close to the snack room in case we get called for a mission. Or I guess…."
"If we have to escape."
The two stood up in unison and opened the hatch. "They'll shoot us down if we try to leave" Syn said "you ready for this?"
Xero nodded and jumped in and Syn got in after. Syn sat in the pilots seat and turned the ship on. He separated from the Massive quickly breaking the docking mechanism on the Massive. The second they broke away fighter ships were swarming them. "Hang on, this ride is about to get bumpy!" Syn took the ship straight through the swarm. He forced the ship to lurch forward, and spin before falling in with the swarm. Even with the seemingly erratic movement of the swarm he still noticed the pattern they used. And so the fighter ships targeting was disoriented and unable to lock on without hitting another part of the swarm. Until they reached the outer edge of the swarm and put all the ships energy into its thrusters making it shoot through space like a comet.
The Bridge, Aboard The Massive*
"They……Escaped?" Neer glared down at Der "Did I choose the wrong Enforcer for my cause?"
"No my Tallest."
"And yet you failed!" Neer yelled getting inches from Der's face. "If they come back and ruin my plans, it's on you Der, and I'll have your PAK destroyed personally! Now be gone from my sight!"
"Yes my Tallest." Der walked away ashamed of his failure.
The Site of Sligh's Death*
"Wait, where's his body?" Syn asked as they searched the area "he fell straight down right?"
"Yeah he did" Xero picked a small device up "Here, take a look at this see if you can figure it out."
He handed it to Syn. The smaller Irken scanned it. "It's a recording device? Should we see what was on it?"
"Might as well, we'll be here until they think of checking this place again."
Syn opened it and a hologram appeared. It was Tallest Red and Tallest Purple.
Red spoke first "Alright I'm not gonna waste time, by now you are likely the last Enforcer and Collector team."
Purple spoke up "We're pretty sure we know who is behind everything that's been happening."
"At least, we know who they will be." Red spoke plainly "Whoever is Tallest after us, is responsible, that said."
"We're probably dead, or assumed to be dead." Purple pointed out.
"Enclosed here are the coordinates we gave our Bodyguard Sligh, we had suspicions that the traitors would try something with him." Red was seemingly inpatient.
"So we warned him and told him to go there if anything happened to us." Purple carried the device over to a ventilation shaft on the bridge. "He's currently waiting at the end of this vent shaft, for this recording, and for our PAKs."
"The traitor likely hasn't succeeded in killing us, so if you've found this and Sligh isn't around, follow the coordinates." Red came back into view. The sound of marching down the hall filled the recording "Looks like we're out of time."
"Whoever is left, end the new Tallest, we'll be ready to return to power after they've been dealt with." Purple was uncharacteristically serious.
"And remember, the universe is ours for the taking." Red finished.
The hologram shut off. Assuming everything they said was true, Sligh was alive, and so were the Almighty Tallest.
Xero and Syn stared at each other for a moment.
Xero spoke first "Let's go."
"Yeah" Syn checked the coordinates. It was just a few meters south in the chasm, but there was only a solid, sheer rock wall.
Syn thought for a moment. "The coordinates say it's straight ahead…but the wall is solid and there is no way through….unless?" He stepped as close to the wall as possible. "The universe is ours for the taking."
The wall seemed to shimmer and fade away.
"That actually worked." Xero sounded surprised. "They must have had this place built years ago." He stepped by Syn and into the cave system.
"Straight ahead" Syn walked in just behind him and the wall shimmered and grew dense, becoming solid once more. The only illumination now was the light of their PAKs. But straight forward meant nothing would change as they walked. And soon enough they found a door. Before Xero got the chance to kick the door open, Syn knocked and the door opened. The smell of oil and metal was overly apparent as the door opened. And the sight that greeted them was Sligh covered in oil and wires.
"Took you long enough!" He turned back and walked inside "come on in."
The two followed him inside. The room was bright and white. Well aside from where oil stained the floor. Strange machines lined the walls, along with arms, eyes, and…two distinctly red and purple PAKs. He sat down at a table fiddling with one of the large eyes that was missing from the wall, that's when they noticed his mechanical arms.
"You know the truth now, right? That Neer is a liar, a fake Tallest, and a traitor."
"Yeah" Syn spoke up.
Sligh closed the eye with a sigh of relief as the mechanical arms fell apart on him. Using his PAK legs he pulled open his eye socket and popped the synthetic eye into place. It turned on, but when he turned to properly greet Xero and Syn it popped from the socket. Xero caught it as it flew by and handed it back. "You may want something to hold it in place."
Sligh nodded, putting it back in his eye socket. Holding it closed he grabbed a small eye patch, it began to glow. "This has a visor for better target acquisition." He placed it over his left eye. It drilled itself into his head at the corners. Little blood droplets dripped from the holes. "There now I can see you properly. Xero, Syn, you guys tried to kill me."
"Kind of upset I failed, but it benefits us that I did." Xero said as he walked to the wall with the tech. He noticed the PAKs on the wall were plugged in. "Is this them?"
"Our Tallest?" Syn asked, glancing at the PAKs.
Sligh nodded "Yep, they dropped their PAKs down a vent and I snatched them. Had to fix them up a bit, Neer cut their PAKs pretty bad.
Two holograms appeared, Red and Purple.
Purple's hologram smiled "Seeeeeee, I told you we could trust them!"
Red's hologram laughed "Hahaha, yes! We got the best of the best! Alright, so since you're both here I take it Neer tried to kill you?"
The Enforcer and Collector nodded affirmatively.
"Well, how about some payback?" Holo Purple asked.
Holo Red continued as the small white room opened up "Then take your pick of the litter!"
The room opened to an enormous magenta room, lined with technology. Vehicles, weapons, armor, anything they could want. Before they could though Holo Purple cried out "Nooooooooo! I wanted to make a pool palace there!!!!!"
"Another one already?" Holo Red seemed upset "Neer's insane, you can't control the universe if there is no universe to control. And all the snacks! You'll pay for this Neer. You! Collector Syn, come here." Xero walked in browsing the tech as Syn approached.
"Yes my Tallest!" He saluted happily.
"Here is a list of codes, download them, and I want you to send them somewhere, just before you go to kill Neer. It'll give you an opportunity to get aboard the Massive relatively unnoticed."
"My Tallest, where will I be sending these codes?"
"Planet Earth." Holo Red shuddered "It's almost sickening to know Zim is actually gonna be useful for once."
Xero came back to the table Sligh was at with a small bundle of items. He activated his armor and slipped it off of his uniform. He carved a series of shapes into it as he modified the Irken Insignia on the shoulder cape of his armor. Then from the armor, his sword Conquest constructed itself. He set the blade down and started attaching a small crimson device to the hilt. He activated the blade, the crimson plasma across the cutting edge of the blade began to glow brighter and grew a darker shade of red. Then he took one of the many devices from the bundle. A blaster, and began to disassemble it. Then using the smart metal of his armor added it to his weapons. And after that a second blaster, this time replacing pieces with a shoulder mount. The smart metal mimicked it's form. And then, the last thing he did was pull off his PAK. He painted over it with purple lines and soon after began rewiring it.
"What are you doing?" Sligh asked as Xero pushed his PAK aside.
"This." He slammed his fist into the table, but nothing happened. Then he put his PAK back on. This time he slammed his fist and put a massive dent in the table.
"Oh you're the one that got those." Holo Purple said. "The R guys said they gave one of the Enforcers cybernetics. But they've been off this entire time right? You've never used them?"
"Correct my Tallest. These augments haven't helped me before, and they'll only help, if I really need them too." He punched the table and again nothing. "Now I'll just link the Cybernetic augments with my armor."
Syn stepped up to the table and looked around the room "So what's the plan for taking down Neer?"
Author's Note: Not trying to sound rude, or call out any readers, but I feel I should state something. I don't write for people to like the characters I'm writing, I do it cause I enjoy telling stories, and if you've read this far, I must have done something right. Just because a character holds the story's focus doesn't mean you should route for them. It just means you're hearing what they are doing. That said, I didn't expect to write as much as I have for this. So thanks to the people who have left reviews, the fact that you showed any interest at all is why this fic is still going.