To Those Who Desire My Power:
10 million years ago, the race of beings that would come to be known as "great" was born. And from the moment one of them uttered their first word, it became clear that their race would become defined by their sheer ambition.
"Mine," said the first of the Impenia to realize their place in the world, as they caved in the biomechanical skull of another of their kind. The other being's only crime had been that they had not been first. And yet this would be but a mere footnote in their race's long history. A race whose greatness was inarguable - though the nature of this "greatness" was a matter of debate among the races they enslaved.
Were they simply too weak, too unambitious? Perhaps it was divine fate, and they had been cursed by the gods in the same way the Impenia had been blessed. Or perhaps they had simply not been first. Whatever the reason, Agori, Valorum, and Skrall alike all knew that they now only had one freedom: to choose their time of death, whether it be now – for disobedience, insurrection, and the like – or 100,000 years later, as their biological components finally gave way.
Not that the Great Beings themselves had solved the mortality issue. And there was an even bigger problem looming. While other ambitious races across the universe had wasted their time building palaces and tombs, while their inefficient and ultimately fatal management of resources claimed their races piece by piece, the Impenia knew that their planet and solar system would eventually run dry. And without a way to reach other systems in a timely manner, they knew they were just a few short calamities away from extinction.
Thus, a plan was devised. One that would require the greatest sacrifices in the history of the Great Beings, and would condemn them to eternal sleep if it failed. The planet they called home was turned into a massive factory, and every last resource was pooled into the construction of giant living probes with a three-fold purpose.
They would scour the galaxy looking for other sentient species, studying them while hiding in plain sight. They would disguises themselves as meteors or moons, or even islands if need be. And the inhabitants of the planets they studied would never know of their true nature, because they would be too busy fighting a hopeless battle against the horde of fearsome machinations contained within the probes. Finally, when the planets were stripped of all their resources and technology, they would return to the Impenia and supply them with the next 10 million years of sustenance for their dying empire.
There were, of course, the usual development hurdles. While, initially, it was suggested that the probes themselves could be created out of planetary bodies, the Terra Magna prototype proved to be a failure, propelling itself to an early heath death in the vacuum of space, as the project leader Ceritus descended into madness. And after the Great Beings settled on the Guardian Sentinel concept, the usual fine tuning followed.
Three separate races of machines intended for labor, law enforcement, and leadership within the Guardian Sentinel were consolidated into one with a multi stage evolutionary process. And the duty of cleaning away the intricate disguises after the mission was completed was eventually taken from the labor bots and given to the nigh-invulnerable machines that were then known as Baterra. Before, they had only been designed for one task: to kill. But now, they would also clean. And when they were done, the surface of every world would be barer than the harshest parts of Bara Magna's endless deserts.
But it was all for naught, because the prototypes that had been intended for usage in the GSRs were none too happy when they became aware that they were being replaced. And though the first Guardian Sentinel made it off the planet, its mission was hindered by the same ambition that had borne it. For there was a being named Makuta, who was a firewall meant to protect anything from corrupting the ship's onboard AI. A being whom had come to realize what his purpose was, and declared that "I will rule instead."
Why am I telling you this, in the form of a tablet that will most likely never be seen by any soul? Because if you are reading this, then you too possess the desire to make the world of the living bend beneath your will. And now you also know that you will fail. Because the GSR is no more, and thus any hope of escaping our flooded prison. Because your sentience is not a miracle of life, but a purposeful mutation. Because I bore you, for I am nothing. Nothing the Great Beings could have predicted, for their hubris did not allow it.
As with you, so I came from nothing. As with me, it is into nothing you will go, knowing that the people of our world have already destroyed your last chance of surviving. For they served me without even knowing it. And now they have died with me… including you.
"Is this really it?" said Toa Iruini. "All of this hurt-work was for nothing?"
"My mask has gone quiet," said Toa Gaaki.
"No visions. Not even for a second?" asked Toa Pouks.
Gaaki said nothing. And then the rocks began to fall.