A/N: It was an absolute treat reading everyone's feedback to the last chapter XD I mean I knew it was a crazy idea, and I understood it would certainly get a "interesting" response - but you guys really made my day. (yes, even the flat-out angry PMs I got from some of you, lmao) If it makes it any better, I still plan to write stuff "good" at least... I'll try my best not to bore you, let's put it that way. :)
But here were my personal favorites:
"Do you snort acid"
"Are you okay?"
"Dude this is crazy"
One PM legit offered me a phone number to my local mental health clinic, noting the child sucked into vacuum scene. I'm SERIOUS. XD Shoutout to dj381, no I don't need a consultation bro XD
Anyways, enjoy the chapter, lol.
2
"Something New"
MN-1 was, for all intents and purposes, a very strategically important planet for the Alliance.
Although it barely classified as one - MN-1 was less than a quarter of the size of Earth's ancient moon (long since converted into a tourist planet), so it could contain only one large outpost dedicated for the Alliance. The real reason that the outpost was useful, despite its crippled size and isolated area in the fringes of the Orion Hypernebula, was that the single Citadel erected on MN-1 doubled as the central communication hub for all Alliance networks. Laying seemingly randomly on MN-1's dusty, calcified rock surface, hidden by the lack of light or nearby stars - was a single, simple Citadel. The cylindrical metal building, extending into the black, magnetically protected atmosphere - benefited from its location. The Alliance took great precaution to hide the location of its intergalactic communication hub, enforce triple-heavy AP patrols throughout the galaxy it was located in, and keep geographic information very brief and non-disclosing. Only the highest ranking APs and the Designators knew about MN-1's existence, and role in all of the Alliance's communication network - to feed the propaganda machine dedicated to suppressing and manipulating the Alliance population's views.
So it came as a large surprise for the sole attendee in the Citadel's topmost floor, who was shocked to see two APs thrown casually into his lab.
"Security!" the human scientist protested, pressing a button near him. "Security! Security!"
The man, tall and broad-shouldered, who entered the lab was dressed in pitch-black armor with golden streaks. He observed the Communication Hub, a bit let down from all the hype of chasing and investigating the secretive location for so long. It was the usual assortment of titanium walling, scattered lab equipment, and of course the panic button behind the reinforced glass table. The one difference from the labs he had raided previously, and the reason why he had spent months tracking down MN-1's location - were the glittering series of electronic panels behind the scientist, still anxiously pressing the button to no avail, bulbous and pale face stressing itself red in a thin lab coat.
"I need you to deliver a message," the man growled, distinctly human but enormous voice paralyzing the scientist in fear.
"Security!" the scientist called out, giving up on the button. "Security!"
The two APs lay on the floor, motionless. The metallic doors to the lab were shoved open, yet no one was coming to the scientist's aid.
"Secu - " the scientist attempted again, cut off as the man grabbed the scientist's neck.
"Unlock the control panels for the Hub," the man commanded.
"Under Alliance regulation, no persons or animal shall be allowed to modify the Alliance control panels," the scientist squeaked out, fat face reddening. "Only Designators and an authorized scien - ARGH!"
The man threw the squealing scientist away, making him collide into a nearby lighted panel, cracking it in two.
"I'm sorry…" the scientist let out in fear, watching the cruel, armored man bend down. "I simply can't…"
"Look at this graphene plating," the man growled, extending a thin blade from his forearm. "Do you really want to see this go up one of your… bodily areas?"
The scientist merely shivered. "You - you wouldn't…"
The man smiled underneath his closed visor. "Try me."
This seemed enough to terrify the scientist into submission. Reluctantly, he forced his palm behind him to interface with a glass panel - after it detected his handprint, the panel authorized a small device to eject out of an open metal pocket. The device had a smooth fabric wrapped around it, and a lighted panel tapering the end.
A booming, robotic voice came from the lab's artificial intelligence equipment.
- INTERGALACTIC BROADCAST AUTHORIZED -
The man roughly grabbed the device, holding it close to his visor.
"Wait!" the scientist squealed again, extending an old hand in fear. "Whatever you say into the recorder - that'll be broadcasted to every display in the fifty-seven galaxies! The Alliance will send an army after you!"
The man kept silent.
"You - you'll start chaos!" the scientist begged. "No one's delivered an unauthorized message before! There'll be - massive consequences!"
The man chuckled, thick bass tones sounding unamused. "I'm counting on it."
The scientist was shocked by the courage of this madman.
"Attention, citizens of this - wondrous Alliance," the man spoke sarcastically into the recorder. "Everything you have been told - is a lie. Your wealth has been made by breaking the backs of innumerable duty workers enslaved across the fifty-seven galaxies, and I am here to tell you…"
The man paused, savoring his words. "... we are going to change this empire. The Revolution is starting soon."
The scientist placed a hand over his mouth, shaking.
"As for the - corrupt elite who rule this pathetic excuse for an Alliance," the man growled. "The Designators, the APs - know that I'm coming… for all of you. Be afraid."
The man smashed the recorder against the wall, crushing it into multiple pieces. The fearful scientist only watched in amazement as the armored man stood up, nodded at the scientist, then proceeded to make his way out of the lab.
"Wait!" the scientist called out, breathing heavily. "Wh - who are - you? A terrorist? A freedom fighter? You - you're crazy, thinking you can take on the entire - Alliance… you'd need an army."
The armored man said nothing, continuing his walk out of the lab, although he eventually offered a response before disappearing the metal hallway.
"It's coming."
. . .
CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION TRANSCRIPTION
DESIGNATION: X9C (SIGMA AP ONLY)
MESSAGE:
This message is to inform the Sigma Alliance Protector - the commander of armed forces in galaxy 32, designation X9C - with an updated list of requests for resources, from planet XS-211.
Request severity: moderate
Types:
Energy saws, nanocrystal reinforced (carbon fiber acceptable) (400x)
Plasma rifles, auxiliary attachments preferable (176x)
Duty Worker infusion, Level 3s preferred but Level 2s acceptable (183719x)
Broader Food Groups
"Wait - stop Tigress," the dark-robed human emphasized, pacing inside the small house. "You think that's going a little too far?"
Tigress sighed, stretching her back - they had spent about fifteen minutes just formulating this one, tiny message - and the time spent flicking and swiping at the holographic panel in Tigress' fingers were beginning to tire her. She glumly sat on her cot, wondering how exactly she had been persuaded to do this - on beautiful nights like tonight, with XS-211's brown sky just letting through a hazy but calm luminescence in her sleepy metal suburbia - Tigress would have enjoyed picking up her cane and taking a nice stroll through the shantytown. Instead, she was stuck inside her cozy but occasionally depressing home - typing a message which she was sure was unneeded, especially at this time of night. Tigress eyed the bookshelf to her right, her only other possession beside the Alliance subsidized holographic display to her left. She would have even been alright with picking up a nice book and reading, although she had lost her glasses a week ago which made distinguishing the tiny print near impossible as of late. The ever-present dust cloud in the house made finding the glasses even more implausible.
Perhaps she should add glasses to the list of requests.
"Sorry," the young human understood, realizing he was wasting her time with a nervous chuckle in his soft, blonde-haired face. "It's just - it's my first time requesting something as yanno - Senior Duty Worker Han and all that…"
Tigress huffed. Although she didn't mind helping out Han, the young man's indecisiveness had cost her more time than she would have liked. Although it had been a long time since she had actually worked in the mines, Tigress understood the general process - work the required shift, get along with everyone, and if something broke - simply contact the supervisor to request something from Alliance supply headquarters. Unfortunately, Han's seniority meant that he had been inevitably been promoted to the supervisor position a few days ago, which stressed the man out - new requests came in every day, along with the usual hustle and drama of running a mine successfully - so he often came to Tigress for advice, given that she had been one of the most prolific mine managers before retiring.
"The food groups is a bit much," Tigress emphasized, scratching at her chin. "Didn't we just get a new supply drop of duty cocktails three weeks ago?"
"Ah!" Han seemed to recognize. "Right right right - um, well scratch that, I guess…"
Tigress made a few swipes on her display, watching the offending text disappear.
"See this is why I come to you before I request anything," Han noted, smiling at Tigress.
"And I just thought you were coming to see my pretty face…" Tigress smirked.
"That too."
"Oh come on," Tigress rejected, shaking her head at the worn out, wrinkled, mildly scarred reflection that stared back at her from her holographic display. "I was joking…"
A beeping noise.
Tigress and Han turned their attention to the holographic, Alliance-subsidized display attached to a wall in the house.
A flurry of grey and black colors were flashing on the screen.
Then a harsh, unusual voice came - but with no visuals other than the grey and black nonsense.
I'm coming for all of you.
The Revolution is coming.
It's coming.
Tigress waved her paw gently clockwise, activating the motion sensor to turn off the display. "Kids must be playing around on the local frequencies again…"
"Yeah," Han agreed, a bit unsettled by the strange, jarring voice. "Still, it's a relief to get a break from the same two channels we normally get."
Tigress smiled. "So - you want me to send this, or not?"
Han took the panel from Tigress' paw, examining the glowing holographic text. He finished the message, adding his title and designation before performing a virtual signature with his fingers. After Tigress nodded, Han swiped upward - the message took a physical form as blue light, compressing into a cube of energy floating in the air.
Tigress took out a small device from her pocket, which resembled a circuit box. ""Holoscribe from planet XS-211, message is authorized."
The cube of energy dissipated.
"Well, that's that," Han concluded, smiling. "And now - anything I could do for you?"
Tigress groaned, feeling a knot in her back stubbornly refuse to go away - although she doubted Han could see discomfort underneath her wilting blue robes. "Yeah - do you ugh - mind getting me that? I'd like to go for a walk."
Tigress pointed out the cane, which was laying a few feet away from her feet on the floor. She could ordinarily somehow stretch and reach it, but the uncomfortable back situation was making every movement thrice as hard - a feat which seemed impossible given how difficult movement was at her age without any physical disabilities.
"Here," Han gleefully handed the cane to Tigress' withered paw. "Anything else?"
"Nothing," Tigress cut short. "Go home and sleep, Han. Don't worry about the message so much."
Han seemed to take this as a positive. The baby-faced human began walking out of the small abode, pulling open the sole metal door to let in much-needed light to the house. Tigress already grew excited at just glimpsing the outside shantytown from the door opening - no kids, drones, APs, or other distractions were there.
A perfect night to take a stroll.
"Han," Tigress called out suddenly.
The man turned back at the door, confused. "What?"
"Don't second guess yourself so often," Tigress advised gently. "Running a mine means making tough, quick decisions. Go with your gut more often."
Han smiled, nodding as he finally exited the home and traipsed his way down the street leading back to the main city.
Tigress attempted to put pressure on her weak leg, but this was a gamble - the bandaged knee socket shivered and quaked, even with the cane somewhat stabilizing her frame. Tigress tried her best to shift all the weight to her other, better leg - this tactic worked a bit better, as it was now possible to stand up.
"Come on… come on…"
Tigress' arms shook from the effort, all weight resting on the cane and (relatively) strong leg. She ought to have been grateful - Tigress had tried this many times before, often with varying results - the cane helped get her past mild mornings, but there were certainly times were Tigress' atrophied muscle and frame forced her just to lay in the cot and stare at the ceiling. These were typically her worst days - horrible mornings which forced her to stay inside and merely re-read one of the books she had almost instinctively knew by memory now.
So today wasn't bad. Tigress marched gently forward, carefully placing weight as liberally as she could on the bad knee - just testing how it was feeling today.
Another beeping noise.
Tigress craned her neck a bit downward, seeing a device - her telecommunicator - attached to her waistband glimmer and buzz.
She groaned. Whenever this would happen - whatever she had planned was being delayed.
Tigress let some loose fingers stumble over the device, pulling the metal box up. She swiped with her thumb, seeing the holographic text project itself into air.
Tigress.
Urgent.
AP threatening to shut mines 44, 12, and 91 down.
New guy - don't recognize him.
Get this - he's a bigass lion.
Yeah.
Get over here.
-Naja
Tigress grumbled. Although the mines had been "shut down" many times before, it felt a bit unusual to have an AP come in (instead of an inspector) and start making threats - particularly one that was animal. Tigress couldn't even remember the last time she saw an animal AP on XS-211 (she had certainly never seen one on SD-77) - and she had been living here for close to fifty years.
Tigress simply made a few taps of her own on her device, seeing responsive holographic text similarly appear.
On my way.
Weird.
Make sure he doesn't break anything.
-Tigress
Tigress continued the march, displeased to once again be forced to sacrifice valuable personal time for mine-related nonsense.
. . .
"Play it again."
"Sir, I don't think we can get any more - "
"Play it. Again."
The man sighed, doing as was demanded. He walked across the perfectly opaque, white-walled room - reaching the middle, where a small holographic panel levitated in the air. With a casual few swipes from the man's fingers, the panel expanded and a robotic voice started playing from the panel.
Attention citizens of this - wondrous Alliance.
"Pause it," another man in the room argued.
He did so, sighing. This was the third time that the message had been played to the eight individuals in the completely white room (if he included himself). Three of them had dark yellow robes flow from shoulder to eclipse their feet, while the other five (like himself) were much more traditional - carbon armor, titanium alloys, nanotubes, etc. all in different colors. They all bunched around the device, sternness in everyone's faces - the armored men even had their visors lowered to get a better look at the panel.
"What do we have so far?" one of the robed men asked, voice smooth and simple. "Commander Omega?"
Omega - one of the armored individuals - sported fierce black hair and piercing eyes, with a dark, sinister look about him.
"The voice has the same frequency ranges of a male human," Omega concluded, swiping at a hologram on his forearm. "Judging by the bass register and deep breaths - he's a large one."
"That doesn't tell us much now, does it?" another of the robed men cut dismissively. "A.G.E has its' first terrorist in eons and all we have to go on is - he's a large man?"
Omega snorted. It would have been tremendously helpful if they could access the security camera footage in the lab where the man had infiltrated - yet this had been disabled, and the data erased before Omega's APs could get there.
So all they had is a voice.
"Play the rest of it," the third robed man emphasized.
EVERYTHING YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD - IS A LIE.
YOUR WEALTH HAS BEEN MADE BY…
"Skip a bit," one of the robed men urged. "Just standard terrorist rhetoric…"
The armored man closest to the panel sighed, swiping ahead to fast-forward the message.
WE ARE GOING TO CHANGE THIS EMPIRE.
THE REVOLUTION IS STARTING SOON.
The recording ended dramatically.
"Gentlemen - it is our duty as Designators…" the three robed men collected together in a small group. "... to make sure everyone in the Alliance obeys their designated lifestyles - to the very last point."
The five armored men nodded.
"Yet we can't do that with a terrorist spreading discord among the masses," the robed man finished. "And you say this was broadcast to every panel in the fifty-seven galaxies, Commander Beta?"
One of the armored men - squat and stubbier than the rest - spoke with a relaxed but careful tone.
"This terrorist clearly targeted MN-1," Beta emphasized. "He wanted to reach as many people as possible."
"How did this man even know about MN-1?" another robed man questioned, stroking his chin. "It's existence - leave alone location - is a secret held by only the men in this room. And the galaxy and solar system is well protected! So many APs… all under Commander Sigma."
The sudden mention of his name drew the man to attention, as the rest of the group looked at him with disdain.
Sigma cleared his throat. "My guards told me the - terrorist used some type of energy manipulation that we - we haven't seen before. That he was an expert hand to hand combatant…"
"Bullshit, Sigma," one of the other armored men interrupted angrily. "We have energy warheads and cosmic annihilation machines that could clean out entire galaxies."
"Well, that's just the thing, Commander Delta," Sigma retaliated. "This - terrorist isn't an army, or even a group - at least not yet. He appears to be making a lot of - symbolic threats against the Alliance."
"Which could very easily translate to real threats," Delta retorted, snorting. "Imagine if this lunatic gets his hand over some real firepower… we don't even know what plans he has for the empire… Gamma, what's the psych profile say?"
A thin but tall armored man nodded, accessing his own hologram on his forearm. "By his message and the mild emotion in his voice, this terrorist would likely be a disgruntled duty worker - perhaps a bit overzealous in his - hatred for the Alliance."
The robed men nodded, agreeing with this. This mysterious man appeared to be acting alone (at least for now), and had clearly major issues with the ideology of "evolution and lack of choice" that was so ingrained in the Alliance system - so it was very likely that the man came from a disenfranchised background, which seemed statistically to be a duty worker.
Sigma had his doubts. In the thousands of years he had been alive - he had never seen even a single duty worker rebel and gain enough power to even remotely pose a threat to the Alliance - this man had to be something else, someone off all the databases…
"Commander Omega, do you have a plan to combat this terrorist?" the robed men announced in unison.
Omega nodded. "I've already sent out AP patrols to MN-1s galaxy to gather more information. And - I've put all the squadrons in my galaxies on high alert for any suspicious activity - along with increased AP presence on all planetary bodies and drone force."
"I suggest you all - Commanders Sigma, Delta, Gamma, and Beta do the same," one of the robed Designators spoke, addressing the armored men. "The Alliance only functions on 100% obedience from all of its subjects… we won't settle for any less… and neither will E1."
Sigma knew he was talking about the missing fourth Designator - the mysterious human being who only met with the other three Designators. He knew that somehow E1 exerted control - even over the other three Designators - but everything about the Alliance political hierarchy was so shadowy and subject to speculation that no one dared ask further. Already everyone operated on information in a vacuum - the three Designators only met with the most senior APs, and E1 would only meet with the other three Designators. This closed loop had never been broken - from the beginning of the Alliance many million years ago.
"Fascinating how this happened under your watch, Sigma," Gamma emphasized, scratching his chin with fascination. "I wonder what psychological information that fact yields…"
"It seems quite suspect," Delta chimed in, enormous and powerful frame shadowing slightly over Sigma's. "You got anything to say?"
Sigma watched Omega and Delta give him angry looks. Gamma and Beta were more curious, yet still introspective - the three Designators, as per usual - were completely unreadable.
"I just think the guy's got some good points," Sigma mentioned quietly. "Maybe - maybe this whole - everyone does what they're evolved to do - maybe that's wrong. Maybe - maybe we should give everyone more - more choice. I - "
"Do not say such idiocy in this room again," one of the Designators forced. "Commander Sigma - you are dismissed from this meeting. Go back to finding this terrorist."
Sigma sighed. "Yes sir."
The yellow-robed man turned to the rest of the AP Commanders.
"As for the rest of you - find this man as quickly as possible - and eliminate him."
A/N
Oooo hee hee… a resistance is starting…
So the main thing is that somehow - someone started to incite a kind of rebellion against the Alliance. I took a lot of inspiration with how certain totalitarian/autocratic regimes suppressed resistance and controlled the mind of the people through media propaganda - this "terrorist" is just the first guy to break the mold and actually start something.
On Tigress' side, you can note that she's aged, retired from a long, brutal life of slave mining, and now is just a humble message transcriber for the Alliance. I wanted to show how ludicrous the idea of resistance is in people's heads - Tigress doesn't even take the message on the "tv" seriously… we can also assume she's made a decent amount of personal connections since then (it's been 58 years since she left the KFP world!) - all of that will be explored in time as well.
And don't worry - I haven't forgotten about ANY of our cast. :)
A little more about the political hierarchy…
So big woop, Omega is actually just an AP - he's not a Designator! Albeit, he shares equal standing with some other Commanders… Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Sigma, each supervising a portion of the 57 galaxies.
Beta's expertise is information. Gamma is analysis. Delta and Omega are aggressive. Sigma - as you probably noted - is the most sympathetic of the bunch.
Hehe.
Support is simply marvelous.
~TW
P.S: In case anyone hasn't realized - this is the final "arc" of this fic - so thus... about 18 chapters to go until this fic's COMPLETION!
