As he waited in front of the door, dreading the scourge of Sentinel forces, Null felt his sins crawling on his soul. His multitool was armed and ready. He had the best one in this instance of the multiverse; a class S rifle, with heavily upgraded ion weaponry, grenades and a personal forcefield. The familiar screech of enraged drones assaulted his auditory systems, worsened by the additional sounds of quasar blasts tearing down the door.
Pounding metal collapsed and exposed Null to the corrupted outside world, luckily though, his advanced guns made short work of the drone that blasted through the door, which fell to the ground, emitting pugneum from its corpse.
"Who's next!" He yelled.
Another drone arrived, foolishly attacking. With a few shots, this one fell too, bellowing a furious scream. Null reloaded his weapon in preparation for the next wave. His suit warned him.
"Sentinel Combat Unit Deployed!"
"I'm gonna miss you Telamon." He lamented.
A group of four armoured drones arrived. With a flick of his wrist, Null activated his personal forcefield, blocking the raging fire from the drones. Each of the four drones had a weak point in its armour and Null's experience had heightened his accuracy. He concentrated fire on one drone in particular, damaging its armour but also, more crucially, penetrating its blind spot. His forcefield continued to block oncoming fire, with the occasional blast hitting Null's exosuit directly, causing very minor shield damage. He took out the first drone. The stench of pugeum now filled his sensory systems. Reloading again, he concentrated further fire on the remaining three drones. With some concentration, he took out the second, then the third and finally, the fourth.
"Warning! Elite Sentinel Force on Approach."
Null figured that he needed more space to battle this oncoming armada. He ran outside the cave, just before the next wave arrived, mourning the corruption of his once lush homeworld. He took cover behind some rocks of pure ferrite as a familiar unit of four drones arrived, accompanied by two quadrupedal elite sentinels the size of vicious predators.
"Remember your training Null, take out the drones first, prevent them from repairing the quads." Null whispered to himself.
The cacophony of metal roars filled the air, followed by a red beam of energy from the face of one of the quads, chipping away at the rocks. While the two quads stayed back, two drones flanked him from behind his cover. Null shot at the two profusely, taking care to aim directly at their weak points while they shot back at him, dealing damage to his exosuit's shield. The first collapsed, then the second.
Briefly ducking out of cover, Null glanced at the remaining two drones and quads. They seemed to hold back, one drone tending to each quad, while they in turn, chipped away at Null's cover.
"Better aim this right." He switched his multitool to grenade mode and lobed a few at the remaining unit over the shattering rocks. The explosions were accompanied by clanking metal and groaning electronics. He glanced again, seeing craters in the ground from the plasma grenades and the corpses of the two drones. Only the quads remained, though both appeared to have been damaged in the aftermath. Null paused, preparing for an assault on the remaining scourge.
He ran out of cover, firing wildly at the enemies, concentrating on one at a time, blocking the other's beam with his personal forcefield. The first quad heaved under the relentless fire with metallic groans and the sounds of shattered electronics. Shards of machinery came pouring out within seconds. As the other quad desperately tried to surpass Null's forcefield, this enemy collapsed in a massive heap of destroyed metal.
"One left." He said to himself as he reloaded his weapon. Giving up on penetrating his forcefield, the second quad lunged forward at Null with a synthetic battlecry. Unprepared, this sent Null, barrelling backwards, towards the ruined rocks that he used as cover, shattering its remains instantly.
Angered, Null immediately threw another plasma grenade at the infernal machine, taking a direct strike to its core, decimating its entire being, with shattered metals sent in all directions. His soul breathed a sigh of relief.
"Warning! Sentinel Walkers Detected!"
The sounds of thunderous mechanical footsteps filled the air of the cursed planet. A crowd of raging screams added to the soundscape. With dread, Null turned to back to look at the armada of giant, bipedal sentinel walkers. Behind them, a locus swarm of armoured drones stretched over the horizon. It was as though every sentinel on this entire planet had arrived just to destroy Null for his immeasurable sins against the Atlas-falsity. His dread intensified. It seemed futile at this point, perhaps he should make a run for it, summon his starship and fly the hell off this devastated world, yet he knew the sentinel starships would endlessly pursue. He had little choice but to face them.
With his multitool fully armed and shield recharged, he peered out of cover to focus his firepower on just one of the dozens of sentinel walkers. He started firing. A mighty whirl crescendoed as a light show of red beams rushed squarely on the damaged rock used as cover. The remainder of cover disintegrated instantly. Now with nowhere to hide, Null wildly lobed his remaining plasma grenades in vain. The army paused, brutally unimpressed by his display of mortal desperation. In a calculated move, every last one of the walkers fired a concentrated beam directly at Null whose soul cried out in agony at the exact moment of impact.
"Argh!" He collapsed on the corrupted ground, unable to feel his legs. They launched a second beam at his right arm which still gripped his multitool. The searing pain rose only to be replaced with numbness where his arm had once been.
With nothing but a head, torso and left arm Null crawled across the ground. Several drones circled his living remains, scanning him. "Just kill me already!" He bemoaned.
"Such a change in tone entity Null." A deep, disembodied voice said.
"Altas? Is that you? I thought you would never talk to me again!"
"Your sins are unspeakable! Your fear of mortality and utter disregard for the lives of others led to your downfall, killing trillions of my children could never be justified!"
"I wanted to see everything! I never wanted it to end, death is the mother of all evils, you Atlas-falsity, should have made us all immortal!"
"And yet, in a moment of agony, you see the value of death. I could very easily rebuild you."
"No you couldn't, don't try to hide it! You fear death too! You're dying! If you tried to recreate me, you'd screw it up! Just like you screwed up this once perfect garden world!"
Calling attention to the glitches seemed to trigger some in the Atlas, every sentinel started to drastically malfunction before collapsing and breaking down entirely. Null's vision whitened as his surroundings shifted from the corrupted world to the interior of a black monolithic space station. At the altar of this extra planetary cathedral lay a crimson sphere. Null looked up at the Atlas with what was left of his strength.
"You have seen every world in this universe, but all universes are dying. For your sins against us, you will now fully understand the extent of this tragedy. We shall grant you the ability to observe, yet never greatly interfere, the entire multiverse. You wanted to see everything, now you will until the end of all universes, which is still in 16/16/16/16 ERROR!"
A blinding purple light filled Null's vision, with spheres of galaxies and worlds unthinkable. He could now see it all.