Chapter 92: The Emperor's Gift
The albino overlord of Kiln's people had no control over his empire anymore. The world's surface, once a vibrant artificial desert planet that contained many forms of life, was now replaced by the ashes of the dead, the endless fields of creep, and countless zerg. Above the surface of Kiln, the swarming masses of airborne zerg became a number too vast to accurately count. Gollog was incapable of fighting against the tide of carapace and wrath, and Gollog himself learned of this too late. With no people to rule over, all Gollog would ever amount to be is a snobbishly prude lizard-man with a glittery robe, fancy gauntlets, shiny boots and a striking crown. He was now an emperor in name only.
Kay stood before this emperor with a fixed glare, while Gollog exchanged a similar stare but with quieted anger, which nearly boiled over to lividly violent rage. However, Gollog understood too well that his powers and his rule couldn't quell the prison system's intruder. The twenty year war was boiling down into a simmer, and the zerg were finally beginning to win. The toxic nests that grew around Kay seemed to relax in their infestation of the mag rail station's glass observatory, yet they still continued to grow. To weed every single growth that Kay had planted in his mag rail station would be borderline impossible. To slay every single zerg organism commanded by Kay would take an eternity if Gollog continued his campaign by himself. Stuck in an endless, fruitless cycle that would merit no reward or mercy.
Gollog sighed as he began walking toward the sword that the late Pallax had crafted before his duel. Once Gollog picked up his deceased general's sword, he sheathed it away and turned to Kay again. "Well... Here we are."
Kay's stare became deadpanned as he shrugged. " 'Well, here we are'? That's all you have to say after all this time we fought each other? I mean... We've been warring for twenty years now, and that's what you say after your imminent defeat?"
Gollog growled venomously at Kay, almost spatting his fury. "Shut the fuck up, Kay. I wasn't finished." After taking a calming breath, he turned away and gazed upon the chaotic war that was ensuing outside the mag rail station. After twenty seconds of what Kay assumed was Gollog staring at his own reflection, Gollog began speaking again, this time in a more calm manner. His expression seemed so despondent. "... My empire is in ruins. My people are dead. My commanders, now incapable of carrying out my orders. And my general, unable to serve me further. Through and through, I had been a vain man that had great ambitions. Though my greed for power and my lust for control had served me well, it was too late for me to realize that my pride had blinded me. You and your monsters continued to evolve as my empire fought them, and I was too defiant to think that I would ever be brought low by them and yourself. But now, in this moment, I see that I had been wrong in the assumption that I could outlive this. You and your zerg continued to display abilities and attributes that has compounded fear into the spirits of my men, and circumvented the adaptive nature of the Kiln Keepers. In truth, I had been a fool.
Gollog turned to Kay and gestured to him. "For every weapon I had launched, thrown, and delivered to kill you and your swarm, I was too ignorant to realize that the ammunition and arms sent had only bought me scant lengths of extended time, preventing my empire's eventual defeat. It was only a matter of time before you conquered everything, a feat that I myself had worked so hard to try and accomplish. It's all for naught now. Only now do I understand that my empire's end is nigh."
Kay shook his head. "It's past nigh now, jackass."
An awkward pause passed between Kay and Gollog. Gollog sighed. He turned to his left and motioned to the empty space next to him. "Skrico, activate holographic display. Tap me into the surveillance system."
[Command detected. Specify parameters.] Skrico replied, almost chirping.
Kay looked around for the voice as Gollog saw several holographic displays appear before him. Kay huffed in annoyance. "Is that a voice of one of those artificial intelligence robots? What were they called again? Intellect hearts or something?"
Gollog didn't bother turning to Kay to answer his question. "Intelligence cores. And no, it is not one of them. Rather, it is a facsimile of one that Faddoh had carefully constructed. The other cores had to be turned off when our informant told us what may come if we continued to leave them running. I imagine something quite disastrous occurred within the past timeline. Must have been quite grand an event to have affected even those ancient machines."
Kay paused for a few seconds before talking again. "You know something that I don't. Explain." It wasn't a question, but a demand.
Gollog snorted as he kept a chuckle from leaving his lungs. "Even a telepathic insect lord like yourself cannot quite see the full picture? I suppose I shall divulge you with this information, seeing as though it is useless to keep you from learning it now." Gollog pointed at the window, which viewed an amassed legion of flying zerg. "On the surface of Kiln, nearly twenty years ago, the intelligence cores was stolen from our clutches. However, our informant had prepared for this, and gave us a blueprint that enabled us to construct our own intelligence cores from the manifestation altars. Years later, much to our own surprise, the Kiln Keepers began construction of the impressively large sky rings and the mag rail stations that keep them afloat. The gilanian public believe that it was the researchers and scientists of the Cube Research Division that were responsible for the creation of the mega structures, yet the construction of the sky rings and the mag rail stations had been completed solely by the Kiln Keepers by themselves.
"My theory on this strange happenstance is that the informant has been guiding us in order to better eradicate your zerg, even going so far as discreetly reprogram the Kiln Keepers to better suit our needs. Faddoh does not know this, but the blueprint that enables construction of the sky rings was added to the knowledge mainframe of the Kiln Keeper database. Each sky ring, and even the mag rail stations, is essentially enormous Kiln Keeper machines. The construction of the sky rings may indeed resulted in the dissolution and cannibalization of their factory, but it created an enormous upgrade for them. The Kiln Keepers could be produced and deployed at a global scale, while the sky rings could house Kiln's entire population. It is an unusual, yet helpful addition to the war effort. I can only surmise that the person responsible for the creation of such a blueprint has to have been a Warden. However, such an outcome is impossible in this day and age."
Kay narrowed his eyes at Gollog. "... So you or your empire didn't build these mega structures at all?"
Gollog shook his head and sighed. "Tis only a secret that I and Faddoh knew. ... Well, I had Faddoh delete his memories afterwards, making it so that only I knew this small secret of enormous proportions. ...Hmm?"
Kay shook his head and sighed. "Well, you could just be telling me that so you'd fuck with me for the hell of it. Anyway, I don't really care who did what to the Kiln Keepers, or who was really responsible for making the sky rings. This war began because I asked from you to let me leave this prison system, yet you continued to spit in my face and growl 'no' as you sent your men in your attempt to exterminate me an my zerg. There is a point where a certain level of disrespect can be tolerated, and you went past that point very long ago. Once I'm done here, I will wash my hands of this ugly affair and find my own way out of this hellhole you call a kingdom. Well... I say that now, but you don't really have a kingdom anymore, do you?"
There was a pause between Kay and Gollog. Unfortunately, Gollog seemed too engrossed with what he was seeing in his holographic screens.
This ticked Kay off. "... Hey! Asshole! I'm right over here!"
Gollog turned to Kay this time, this time with an expression of confusion and mounting anger while he pointed at the holographic screens. "Kay, why are my citizens riding upon the backs of your blade hounds?"
Kay huffed. He had nearly forgotten about that. "Oh that." Kay then waved dismissively at Gollog. "I figured that there were still some dissenters to your rule, so I gave them a choice to either die where they stand, or be delivered back to Kiln to escape your tyranny."
Gollog hissed loudly as he looked down at his feet and clutched his hands into tightened fists. "THERE ARE STILL TRAITORS IN MY RANKS? ..." Gollog took in a calming breath before looking at Kay again. "Why are you delivering them to Kiln? It is a ruined world, what with the necrostorm having killed all animal and plant life on it."
"It is not ideal for them, no." Kay replied with a shake of his head. "But if it means they can spend another second without having to endure under the leadership of your iron fist, then I can give them that. That, and there is still some manifestation altar technology they can use to generate rations capable of providing them a nutritional substitute. Failing that, they can boil creep to gain water, or boil resource tumor pods to supplement their diet."
Gollog's expression became both annoyed and confused. "... Why would you do this for them? They are not your people."
Kay nodded. "That is true." A sigh then flowed from his lungs. "But the world will get so boring if it's going to be populated with just zerg."
A long pause lasting several seconds, somewhere between twelve and thirteen, had passed as Gollog stared at Kay under a new light. But as the pause finally passed, Gollog's lips pursed as his glare became stern. "... So you would keep them as your pets? As your cattle? Your prey?"
Kay shook his head as he dismissed Gollog with a sway of his hand. "No. Not as prey, but as new citizens of a republic. Once I leave to new pastures, they shall be free to form their own governments and laws, all without your supervision or your corruption. And once I find the exit that lets me leave this prison, I shall show them the way out and give them the choice to freely leave."
Another long pause. This time it was longer than before, roughly twenty seconds. Gollog began to snigger before a rumbling laugh escaped his throat. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, You still honestly believe that you can escape Kiln's prison system?! Ha ha ha ha ha! Ahh, you are an even bigger fool than I had thought, Kay!"
Kay narrowed his eyes at Gollog as he crossed his arms. "Prattle less and make some damn sense. What are you going on about?"
Gollog shook his head as his laughing fit finally calmed down. "Oh Kay. You will understand why this prison system is so efficient. You see, each and every single gilanian that hatches, lives, and dies in this prison system is doomed to never leave."
"Doomed?"
"The medical micro-machines is the key." Gollog announced. "Not only are they capable of making sure the gilanian they inhabit remains healthy till they reach their twilight years, they initiate their means of procreation. They are also responsible for destroying their host if the gilanian ever manages to leave Kiln, which ruptures their cells and liquefies their brain. But such is the penance for the defiance of leaving our prison."
Kay blinked a few times. That... didn't actually make much sense. Kay remembered that, in the past timeline where the silver sea began to cover everything, Kragnon learned that he was a clone, but he did seem to go through a 'cellular self-destruct'.
"Of course, there are other criteria that can make the medical micro-machines rip their cells and mind apart." With a sinister grin, Gollog turned to the paneled glass wall and shouted to it, staring at the mass of zerg monsters that blocked his view of Kiln. "I SUMMON FORTH MY DIVINE POWER! CARRY MY VOICE TO THOSE WHO JOINED MY EMPIRE, DEFECTED FROM MY EMPIRE, AND HAS BEEN HATCHED UNDER THE RULE OF MY EMPIRE, WITH EXCEPTION TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN MADE IMMORTAL! HEED ME, MY POPULACE! YOU HAVE LIVED A LIFE THAT IS A LIE! A LIE SO POWERFUL THAT IT SHALL STRIP YOU OF YOUR MORTALITY ONCE LEARNED! UPON LEARNING THAT MANY OF YOU HAVE BECAME TRAITOROUS TO MY RULE, I SHALL DEEM EVERY ONE OF YOU UNWORTHY OF LIFE! BUT REJOICE! I SHALL TEACH YOU THIS DARK SECRET AS YOUR FINAL PUNISHMENT!"
{Remember this moment, Kay. Desperation doesn't reward kindness.}
Kay did not like where this was heading. Especially since he didn't know what The Overmind had whispered to him.
With a final bellow from a voice that nobody couldn't identify the source from, the remaining population of Gollog's empire was assailed with a broadcasted message that vibrated through their medical micro-machines.
[EVERYONE GILANIAN IN THE KILN PRISON SYSTEM IS BORN A CLONE, OR WERE DESCENDED FROM CLONES! ENJOY THE DEATHS THAT YOU HAVE EARNED!]
Gadral was confused as the voice of the emperor he openly denounced had spoken directly to him. The group of gathered dissenters that was gathered by the zerg, who once murmured and clamored among each other in fevered horror and uncertain confusion, was now eerily silent. It was a strange silence between the dissenters of Gollog's rule. Even Gadral was at a loss.
"What was that about?" "Was it Gollog speaking directly to us?" "You heard it too? I thought I was becoming crazy!" "Yeah, I heard it." "Is it true that we are clones?" "What is a clone anyway?" "I think a clone is someone who has the exact DNA from their parent." "You mean like a single parent? Would it be the mother or the father?" "The clone's parent could be mother OR father, I think." "But that doesn't make sense. I witnessed my wife lay her eggs days ago. How would that make my children clones?"
Gadral's stomach flopped as an unusual sensation pierced through his body and mind. "Oh... I have a bad feeling about this."
Pained groans began to emanate from the dissenters, which quickly grew to pained yells and insane shrieks. Their flesh began to needle with pain as red ichor used out from between their scales. Their blood was more profusely gushing from their eyes, nostrils and mouths as their pain began to heighten and intensify even more. One by one did the dissenting gilanians fell over and died from the pain, while an unfortunate few experienced a numbing insanity that dulled their minds. The lucky few that died of heart attacks experienced a quick death, which spared them from a fate more unfortunate. Gadral keeled over as his heart painfully stopped.
Kay was startled as he witnessed the dying gilanians through the minds and eyes of his zerg within the bellies of the leviathans. It was hard to swallow. Kay didn't realize that Gollog would rather have his people die than be in the safe clutches of the zerg. And even then, the entire population of the Golden Star Empire was rendered completely deceased within the minute. All that was left of them was soft, bloody bodies that littered the fleshy floors of the leviathans' innards.
Kay turned to Gollog with his teeth bared. "What the fuck did you do?"
Gollog smiled at Kay. "I denied you my gilanian resources, Kay. Consider it as my final defiance against your swarm. It will remind you and to all others that I still have the power to give, and the power to take, anything and everything. A final gift for my own indulgence. Enjoy my dead kingdom, Kay. I will surely miss it, but never you. I summon forth my divine power. Deliver me to the Sovereign Crypt, then self-destruct the magnetic axle rail stations and the sky rings."
After a haze of blue and white made Gollog disappear, a deep rumble rocketed within the glass observatory. Kay's head whipped around as he sensed several explosions rocking the satellite station that kept the ring-shaped mega-structures afloat. The sky rings began to bend dangerously as the mag rail stations began to lose control of their rotation, randomly speeding up or slowing down despite the leviathans' best efforts to stabilize the mega structures.
Kay realized that his time visiting the mag rail station was just about over.
If there was an atmosphere, then Alexandriana would bellow a war cry to draw her opponent's attention to her. Sadly, she had been delivered onto a section of the sky ring that was quite far from the battle, though she and her pack slowly approached it with each step. However, she was currently with a large pack that consisted of many ravasaurs, igniters, creeper hosts and tyrannozors. They traveled along the creep-covered surface of the claimed sky rings, the weapon placements already destroyed from the earlier onslaught. Far ahead, Alexandriana could see the brilliant flashes of red that signaled the presence of the super cyborg mech suit.
An errant ray of scarlet fury had glanced across her shell-covered carapace, which forced her to feel the blazing pain that followed. It made her sharp-toothed smile gleam with more excitement and war-lust, which only drove her toward her target with quickened expedience. Her desire to fight would fuel her desire to evolve, and the zerg were masters of evolution. She didn't even care if the giant mech's lasers could eradicate leviathans in seconds. All she needed was to find a window of opportunity. Once found, she could open it wide and began exploiting the weakness.
Namely, the giant mech seemed to use two types of attacks quite extensively. One of which was the fuck-off laser blasts that it emitted from its hands, which were capable of sawing a leviathan in half, or blowing them apart into chunky pieces of bloody gore in mere seconds. Even with a symbiote helping the leviathans, the shell that surrounded their carapaced hide did little to mitigate the damage, and the droves of mutalisks died in said droves as the beams widened to cover a larger area. However, it had only two arms to aim its weapons with, meaning that even if it wildly flailed its arms around while it fired its high-powered energy blasts, it couldn't use them very effectively since there were so many zerg swarming it, and that it would risk hitting the mag rail station that Gollog currently resided on.
Another of its attacks was the use of an impenetrable energy shield. If there were too many zerg attacking the giant robot all at once, then it would use its shield to not only protect itself, but to also ram into the more dangerous zerg monsters. Such an attack seemed to even render the leviathans' bio-stasis ability completely useless, since any time three or more leviathans attempted to invade the giant mech's space, it would activate its impenetrable barrier and use it offensively. However, when it uses its barrier, it would enable the zerg unimpeded access to the mag rail station that it protected.
In short, it was vulnerable when attacking with its energy beams while it defends the station, but is much more dangerous than normal. It was invulnerable when using its best defense as an offensive weapon, but using such an ability would leave the station undefended. Alexandriana had an idea on how to counter this tactic.
As the giant mech was pressured into fighting against the horde of zerg, Alexandriana's pack moved along the surface of the creep-covered sky ring, doing their best to get close to the mag rail station to eventually attract the giant robot's attention.
Once the robot veered its head and saw Alexandriana's pack, it changed direction and sped towards the threat. The ravasaurs and igniters moved on towards the mag rail station while the tyrannozors, the creeper hosts and Alexandriana prepared and eagerly watched the incoming giant mech. Before the mech robot got too close, the creeper hosts spawned a swarm of creepers that lazily flew towards the threat. It was a tactic that was meant to divide the mech robot's attention to target three groups of enemies, rather than focus on the pack as a whole. The giant mech would concentrate on the ravasaurs and igniters that would approach the mag rail station, while the creepers that flew towards it would deliver a caustic shower of acid that would dissolve its armor and chassis. It would have calculated that the creepers are the bigger threat, while it would also acknowledge that the ravasaurs and igniters would cause great damage to the mag rail station if not dealt with in time. The tyrannozors and Alexandriana would then spread themselves around the circumference of the sky ring, which would also require more time for the giant mech robot to aim and shoot its energy blasts at. Its normal tactic of ramming itself into its enemies while its barrier was active would risk damage to the sky ring itself, and the tyrannozors spreading themselves along the surface of the mega-structure would make it that much harder to eliminate the zerg. It's big size meant that its aiming speed would be greatly slowed. Or at least that was what Alexandriana understood from Kay's experience with his fight with the giant mech robot.
Alexandriana hoped that if the giant mech robot was damaged enough, especially if its hands or device that produced the barrier was disabled, then she would dive into this battle and deal the killing blow.
However, the floor under her and her pack's feet began to rumble and buckle violently. Explosions along the sky rings burst outward as the vacuum-sealed insides was pushed outward. Much of the zerg that crawled along the surface of the sky rings were flung off, which would collide with a flying zerg organism during their fall. They may cling on for a time, but they would have to be picked up by an overlord with ventral sacks later.
Alexandriana had jumped off of the sky ring and onto the hull of the mag rail station, her claws digging deep into the metal and preventing her from falling back to Kiln. 'Something is happening to the ring, I think? It's exploding.' She explained to the brood she agreed to ally herself with.
'I FUCKING KNOW!' Kay shouted. 'AND FOR THE RECORD: FUCK GOLLOG!'
'Kay, please calm down and explain to us what happened?' Asked Virid.
'Gollog found out that we were trying to deliver defectors to the surface of Kiln, so he decided to let them die through some kind of self-termination fail-safe.' Kay explained. 'Also, he ordered for the sky rings to self-destruct. Alex, what is the condition of the giant robot mech?'
Alexandriana turned around to see the giant robot looking her way, but it didn't seem interested in pursuing her. Instead, it was enveloped by the telltale blue-white glittering of a MEM shift effect, which made the giant robot mech vanish. Alexandriana growled in annoyance and anger. 'My target escaped with that MEM shift tech just now. I want to add that I am greatly angered by this.'
Corvurn decided to add into the conversation. 'Troubling. Mechanical juggernaut fled battle. Returning repaired for next battle, likely. Cannot pursue.'
'Did any of our brood queens latch any parasites onto it?' Virid asked.
'I don't think any of them did, Virid. But despite all that we have accomplished, who would have expected this tumultuous outcome?!' Exclaimed Thyzir.
'I need to address a sudden issue, everyone.' Othafurn interjected. 'Some of the refugees have came under a sudden illness. The survivors are panicking, and Baroness Tak requests your audience, Kay.'
'As much as I love to, I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF AN UNSTABLE SPACE STATION AT THE MOMENT, SO IT CAN WAIT!' Kay sharply replied.
'The gilanian race on Kiln were clones the entire time?' Kragnon said.
'NOT NOW, KRAGNON! SURVIVING RIGHT NOW! WE'LL MOPE LATER!'
Alexandriana rolled her reptilian eyes and shook her head. She would have sighed too, but there was no air to do that. Alas, she would have to fight the giant robot mech on another day.
A/N: Got Rain World recently. Might try a fanfic or even a crossover of it someday. '3'