INCOMING TRANSMISSION FROM PLANET DERIM
Red and Purple had a growing nervousness within them. About twenty four Earth hours ago they had lost all contact with Sarim, the Irken Sentry planet that controlled all of the Irken sentry probes. The sentry scans they received before they had lost contact revealed no non-Irken ships entering Sarim's atmosphere, and there is no ship that can avoid Irken detection. That only meant that an Irken had somehow caused a planet to basically disappear, but they could not think of any Irkens that would be disloyal.
Derim was their back-up sentry planet, meant to maintain feed from the sentry probes, but the feed started to fizzle out an hour ago.
"Accept transmission," Red said with urgency.
The screen revealed a battered Irken with a broken antennae, he had lost one eye and was clutching his left arm.
"My Tallests," He spoke, "I don't have much time. Derim was overtaken, we didn't see them coming. They just appeared out of nowhere and started wiping us out! I've never seen anything like them before..." The sound of a charging laser was heard while he spoke. A moment later, a beam had shot him from the back, leaving a visible hole in his chest. Red and Purple stood shocked and the transmission was cut. They just lost their sentry probes for all their planets except for Irk, all within twenty-five hours. They've dealt with resistance forces before, a couple of times they even held a planet for a few days before it was re-conquested but never had they completely lost planets.
"What do we do!" Purple said.
"I'm starting to think that having each planet have a single purpose was a bad idea," Red said.
The monkey became an enigma to Dib and the others. For one thing it appeared out of his head, and Tel had confirmed that he was not the Great Boad, meaning that it wasn't the ritual that caused him to appear. He only did two things since his arrival, play with his berries or pilot the Dibship, which wasn't too surprising considering his astronaut-like attire. This meant less practice for Dib to fly the ship, causing an increase in boredom for him.
He started walking around the Dibship, learning just how big the interior was. He had only really been inside his room, the main room where the pilot seat was, and a room designated to eat their rations.
"Zim, just draw the attention while I flank them!" Dib heard Gaz's voice coming from her room. Out of curiosity he opened the door, only to be met with a flying book to the face. It took him a moment to recover.
"You're not allowed to enter my room without my permission, Dib," Gaz said. She was sitting on her bed with the game console Zim had made for her, near her was Zim who was holding a replica of the device. He was entranced by the game, carelessly mashing away at the buttons.
"Nooooooooooo! How dare you slay Zim, zombie piggy! I shall rise from the grave and beat you to death, with your own dead body!" Zim said, he paid no mind to Dib.
"What do you want?" Gaz asked.
"I was just wondering what you were doing," Dib replied.
"Playing video games, what else?"
"With Zim?"
"I wanted to play co-op and he's a better partner than you."
"Die vampire piggy! Feel the wrath of Zim, Overlord of Doom! Hahahahahaha!" Zim was way to into the game.
"If you're done sticking your nose in my business, go away," Gaz slammed the door in Dib's face. Despite Gaz's consistent hostile nature, even he noticed a change in her. She was becoming more tolerant of others, except for him of course, but to go to the extent of playing video games with other people, and of all people Zim. He found it odd, but decided not to dwell to much on it.
Dib continued his walk around the ship, noticing how quiet it was a lot. Occasionally he found Gir and Skoodge playing around, actually Gir playing with Skoodge, while screaming his usual shrieks and confusing nonsense.
"Ouch! Dammit! Wh-AAHHHHHHH!" Dib was struck by something soft, but with enough force to knock him to the ground. It was Kor who had fallen from the tunnel leading to the new room that was for the Heboadians. Kor was helping them install a speaker system for the Dibship's voice.
"Oh, hey Dib," Kor moved off of Dib's body, allowing him to get up.
"Jeez, Kor, what happened?" Dib asked.
"I got electrocuted by one of the wires on the speaker and lost my grip on the ladder."
"For Tel and the others' new room?"
"Yeah, they've got some fried circuits in their head for wanting to install a speaker just to hear this stupid ship speak, but it's not like that's anything strange around here." Gir walked by them waving his arms like a hummingbird with spoons, making a clicking noise. "Nothing is ever strange anymore."
Dib's curiosity had caused him to climb up to see the Heboadians, or ZMDA as Zim referred to them.
"Oh please, Dibship, share more of your wise haiku!" Said a Heboadian. They gathered around the speaker like a crowd watching an execution, focusing so intently, fueled by their curiosity of what the outcome would be. Only Tel sat in the very back in the room, reading a book on warfare, having no interest whatsoever in the Dibship's words.
"Please," the Dibship said, "can you idiots just leave me alone!"
"He broke the seven, five, seven standard of haiku!"
"How revolutionary!"
Dib saw Tel's hand rise to his face and covered it, disgruntled at his people's growing idiocy. Dib also left quickly, not wanting to watch the Dibship's torture any longer.
Dib saw Kor cleaning up her tools that had fell, he helped her out and she was starting to walk away.
"Hey, wait," Dib shouted.
"What?" Kor asked.
"I wanted to ask you this for a while, why are you putting up with us?"
"What do you mean exactly?"
"Well it's not like you were forced into staying with us all this time due to an inability to go anywhere else or being bounded by your word like Tel. You could leave anytime you want."
"I get a free room, free food, access to a laboratory stocked with the most advance alien technology and all I have to do in exchange is screw a few bolts and shoot some things. Leaving this sounds like such a great idea. Why'd you ask, are you implying something?"
"No, I was just-"
"Listen, Dib, I'll be the first one to admit that I didn't plan my goal to get off of Fefa all the way through. I was only focused on getting off Fefa and never coming back, so that means I have nowhere else to go. I blew up my last remaining relative, so I have no contacts whatsoever. I have nothing, Dib, except for this! Even if I know this is a crazy, stupid mission where I know I'm probably going to wish I never came, it's at least something for me! So what about you, why are you here?"
"I-I don't know," Dib wore a saddened look on his face. Seeing this, Kor thought she might've been too harsh with her words and let out an audible sigh.
"Look, I'm sorry about what I said. I was just fired up and-"
"No, you're right, you have something while I have nothing. I only came on this thing to secretly take pictures of Zim for when we get back to earth and maybe learn more about aliens, but recently I just feel so empty. Zim obviously doesn't care about being revealed on earth anymore, he even saved my life. I don't know why I do anything anymore."
"Stop thinking about it so much. The fact is that you're here now, and you'll be staying here. So just relax and stop moping around the ship. I may be goth but I only have so much tolerance for angst." Kor took her things and then walked away.
Dib returned to the cockpit, where the monkey was still piloting the ship. Dib stared into deep space in the window, still troubled by his pointlessness. He wasn't good enough to be a soldier like Tel, not smart enough about alien technology like Kor, not nearly as much of a kiss-up to Zim like Skoodge, Gaz didn't care about anything, and Dib doesn't want to be whatever Gir is. He couldn't pursue his hobby of earthly mysteries in space, and it's not like he had to prove to people that Zim was an alien in space. He started thinking about how long he had spent his life trying to prove Zim's alien origins, it was a long think.
Dib sat down and sighed, he muttered under his breath, "Stupid monkey."
The Irken Armory Planet, Oberox, one of the few planets that did not have native inhabitants that was invaded by the Irken Empire, needless to say, the Invader that conquered it had a very easy time. The terrain was made of tiny, red, crystallized particles, similar to earth snow but it didn't melt into a liquid state. Settlements had been made by the Irkens in one area, though they were small and surrounded the main reason why the Irkens kept the planet. The settlements surrounded the towering fortress that is the Irken Armory.
The fact that it stored all of the Irken weaponry for other Irken colonies made it a prime target for any opposition to the Irken rule. Indeed, Oberox had been under heavy resistance for three years. However, the effect of this resistance was minimal; their several plans of attacking the Irken fortress all failed and their members were dying in each suicide mission. Yet they kept attacking it, like the fly that's trying to hang around your face. This greatly irked the Irken who had conquered this planet and was given leadership over it, Invader Togan.
Togan was about the same height as the crew on the Irken Massive. He had conquered Oberox during Operation: Genesis Doom when the Tallest Miyuki reigned. Togan wasn't just given leadership just because he conquered Oberox though, it was also due to his abilities. During his early years, Togan underwent an experimental process that gave him psychic powers, the same process Tak would also go through. However, he used his own genius to add on to the implant, drilling more and more metal into his own cranium, until his skull was a metallic mess but made him the most powerful Irken psychic to ever live.
"Sir, we've received another report of an attack by the resistance," One of the Irkens that served Togan had just found his leader outside the fortress staring of into the vast emptiness of Oberox.
"That petty band of beings that have never breached the walls of the fortress, don't they know it's pointless?" Togan said.
"Well, uh, they finally broke through the wall, sir."
"WHAT? I step out for a stroll and your IMCOMPETENCE had caused these insects to actually break the WALL!"
"B-but -"
"QUIET! I'll deal with this nuisance by myself." Togan began walking off towards the fortress, leaving his subordinate alone. Togan then stopped and turned around, "I forgot one thing."
"What is it, si-ER!" A robotic Irken hand with three bladed claws where the fingers would be had slightly pierced his chest. He recognized it as Togan's, being propelled by his psychic powers. "W-why, sir?"
"I do not like to be disturbed during my peaceful walks, and frankly, you're just too stupid to live."
"B-but sir, I'm you're most trusted adviser, WE WENT TO INVADER SCHOOL TOGETHER!"
"You were stupid back then too."
"SI-" Togan had propelled his hand straight through, leaving a hole from the Irken's chest to his PAK. Togan returned his hand to his wrist and wiped the blood and circuitry off.
"Why must I keep reminding them to not disturb me when I go outside," Togan started walking back towards the fortress, not even glancing at the corpses of his other past advisers that died from his previous walks.
"Leader, we've breached the wall," The radio chatter from the resistance infiltration team had reached the resistance base. There stood the leader of the Oberox resistance, a being encased entirely in armor. He listened silently with his other resistance members.
"We're transmitting scans of the interior right now."
"You have to hurry, the Irkens should have noticed you by now."
"Leader, when we agreed to do this mission we had already accepted our deat-"
"Infiltration team? Answer me!" The sound of lasers and screams could be heard through the radio, within seconds there was silence.
"Oh my Gods, he wiped out every so quickl-"
"Squad leader, get out-"
"OH MY GODS, IT'S DRILLING THROUGH MY CHEST CAVITY!"
"Squad-"
"AHHHHHHHH!"
"Squa-"
"AHHHHHHHH!"
"Squ-"
"AHHHHHHHH!" The leader decided to wait a bit longer until the screams died.
"Hello, is he finally dead? I kept stabbing and stabbing but it just took so long to do it." The armored leader recognized the voice, it was Togan. "Is this the Leader of the Resistance? You realize how cliché that title is, right? Leader of the Resistance, you should've tried a different title, like Emperor or Overlord of the Resistance, something to make this little game we're playing mildly interesting."
"Are my men-"
"Dead, all of them, and they better be. I wasted so much effort sliced through them. You need to stop with these attacks, Mr Leader, my hand is starting to rust from all the blood." The radio became silent.
Zim and the others had entered Oberox's orbit, safely landing in the port of the surrounding settlement. Zim gathered everyone in the cockpit.
"For once you guys didn't crash into a planet," Kor said.
"This is Oberox! Home to the mighty Irken fortress known as the Irken Armory! With walls so solid, not even a moose can break them!" Zim said.
"So now that we're here, did you actually think of a plan for once?"
"Of course, we attack-"
"It's stupid," Gaz interrupted.
"What?"
"Your plan, it's stupid."
"I didn-"
"It doesn't matter what your plan is, they're always stupid."
"HOW-"
"Stupid."
"But-"
"Stupid."
"Plan-"
"Stupid."
"WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE A PLAN!"
"So you don't have a plan?"
"None, and therefore you can no longer spout your nonsense about my genius plan if it doesn't exist, ha!"
"Well, that just makes you stupid then."
"You grate on my receptive fibers, human!"
"Oo, oo! I have a plan!" Gir said.
"Well why not, Gir, since SOMEONE here is denying my genius, maybe she'll accept an idea from a...this."
"Yaaay! We should all go sightseeing! I brought the cameras!" Gir opened his mouth and stuck his hand in, trying to get something from the inside of his body, he was really struggling.
"Gir! This isn't some vacation for you to go frolicking in flowery fields of mushy plants!"
"It's not that bad of an idea," Gaz said.
"What? You want to frolic too, Gaz-human?"
"No, I mean reconnaissance, instead of attacking a giant fortress head on. You know, blend in, analyze its weakness, and then attack, sound familiar?"
"She has a point," Kor said.
"Are you insisting that Gir's plan is superior to my superior plan originating from the superior being known as Zim?"
"Yes." Zim was shocked, to think that Gir had inspired a better plan than his, or at least by everyone else's point of view, it had made his mind run labyrinths before coming back to his senses.
"Fine! Skoodge! You and the ZMDA will remain in the Dibship. Gaz, Dib, Gir, Kor, and I will gather data on the armory. Remain alert just in case we run into some trouble."
"Beings have exited the ship."
"Can you identify their species?"
"I can't recognize the one dressed in black."
"There's three of them wearing black."
"The squishy looking one."
"They all look squishy looking."
"The green one."
"There's two of them."
"Well, brother, you can try identifying them."
"Gladly...the pinkish one looks familiar."
"There's two of them."
"Well, brother, how about we just agree that we don't know anything."
"That's agreeable."
"Ind-wait. You see that one with the two antennas."
"There's-wait there's only one of them."
"That's an Irken."
"Really?"
"I'm sure of it."
"Setting target to Irken."
"Commence movement on target."
The settlement on Oberox lacked life. It felt as empty as the stomach of a starved whale. Gir was constantly running back and forth between structures as Zim and the others walked down the road. On one side, it was nothing but vast red Oberox crystals in view, however on the other side was a great wall, Zim was certain on the other side would be the armory. They were looking for an opening in this wall.
"Are you sure the Irken Armory is on the other side of this wall?" Dib asked.
"I can smell and taste the Irken tech on the other side. It reeks of superiority and has the flavor of impending DOOM!" Zim said.
"Excuse me," The voice came from behind them, they turned to find the first being they've seen on Oberox. He was a tall purple being, covered in scales like a lizard and had a head crest that was similar to earthen hair. Behind him was a long, lizard tail and his exposed feet also had claws. Despite the similarities to a walking lizard there were just as many dissimilarities, his face was flat like a human's but lacked any sort of nostrils, ears, and a mouth. His eyes were a single solid color, blue. Most noticeable, however, was the lack of any arms but his hands were still there, floating beside him. One hand revealed Gir, held by one leg. He lifted Gir up and asked, "Is this your robot?"
"Master, look, I got captured!" Gir shouted with his usual glee.
"You know, by now I'd usually be questioning his illogical biology, but I think I got desensitized from our time in space," Dib said.
"My Irk, he's hideous!" Zim shouted.
"Yes, that's our robot," Kor answered.
"Thank you for answering and not commenting on my appearance," he said. "I found your bot clutching on my skull. Also, it might be obvious, but I must ask, is your robot...malfunctioning?"
"Malfunctioning?" Zim said, "Gir is a highly advance Irken robotic servant designed for heavy surveillance of weaker species weaknesses so that we may crush them swiftly! Malfunctioning, NO! He was always like this. Built stupid, VERY LIKELY!"
"I see, so you're Irken." He tossed Gir back at them, "So are these other beings your slaves?"
"Of course!"
"Not," Gaz said, "I'm human, and so is the other stupid looking dweeb, from Earth."
"I'm Fefian," Kor said, "And we aren't his slaves, servants, or loyal friends, just...partially willing companions."
"Interesting, this is the first I've ever heard of an Irken being on relatively non-hostile terms with non-Irkens since they ended friendly relations with the Vortions," he said, "I am a Darvon, nice to meet you."
The Darvon held out his hand, similar to an earthen handshake. Zim was a bit confused at first, since he was unfamiliar with the gesture and was still taken aback by the Darvon's hideous aesthetics. Gir jumped forward in front of Zim and stared stupidly at the Darvon. This confused him greatly.
"He's got a boomstick!" Gir said.
"What's a boomstick?" Zim asked.
"I don't have anything!" The Darvon said nervously.
"Yes you do," Gir shouted, "It's right there!" Gir pointed to the huge blaster strapped to his back.
"How did we not notice that," Dib said.
"I don't get it, how does the word boomstick relate to a Giant Fraction Blaster," Zim continued to ponder.
"What's a Giant Fraction Blaster? And why does he-"
"Alright, you caught me!" The Darvon shouted. He held out his blaster and pointed it at the group. Everyone was shocked when they saw the giant barrel staring them in the face, all except Zim, who was still pondering his conundrum, and Gir, who continued to maintain his gleeful demeanor.
They turned around to try and run in the opposite direction but got cut off by another creature. He was similar to the other being, the only difference being the existence of an actual lizard snout and mouth and he walked on all fours. There was also what seemed to look like a gatling turret on his back.
"Settle down, Kry, don't go tearing into them, yet," The Darvon said. The creature just continued to snarl at them, preventing the group from leaving.
"My Irk, he's hideous too, though less than the other one!" Zim said.
"It's quite rare to see an Irken aircraft dock outside the fortress, it's quite suspicious,"
"We aren't doing anything," Dib said.
"He's Irken, that's already a good enough reason for me to blast him to pieces, and you're his allies, which actually only gives me enough reason to horrifically maul you. Nonetheless, tell me your plans before I blast you to the six and a half corners of Oberox, you buggy drone!"
Zim was staring off into another direction, almost as if he hasn't heard anything since Gir's comment.
"Zim, hurry up and do something," Gaz yelled at him. The sound of the Darvon's blaster charging alerted the others. "ZIM!"
"Boom, boom, stick...wait!" Zim exclaimed, "How DARE you call the mighty Zim a buggy drone!"
"GOD DAMMIT ZIM!"
"You'll RUE the day you call Zim a buggy drone! Gir, attack sequence SW!"
"Yes Sir!" Gir activated his duty mode and did several superfluous flips and spins, twirling all the Darvon while waving his hands up and down. The Darvon ignored Gir's actions.
"You know what, just shoot me now, it's not like I'll die and I'd rather suffer through pain than this stupidity," Kor said.
"SAY GOODBYE TO LIFE, IRKEN!" The Darvon yelled.
"Halt, brother!" The Darvon stopped charging his Giant Fraction Blaster on command. He looked away from the group and stared behind them. It was another Darvon, almost identical except his head crest was different and his skin was red. "You calm down too, Kry," The creature stopped snarling and started backing down.
"What do you want, Ere? The target has been confirmed as Irken, we've been given commands to kill them on site so let me spill this one's blood already."
"Orders have changed, I just got off talking to the Leader, they want to interrogate him instead. Besides I'm not going to let you kill these other beings when they have no accounts of hostile activity."
"They're Irken allies, besides I wasn't going to kill them, only maim, horrifically."
"Brother, do not incite me." The original Darvon reluctantly lowered his blaster, much to the relief of Zim and the others. The Darvon then quickly swung his blaster, knocking Zim into an old building, knocking him out cold.
When Zim woke up he was in a dark, dank, cold cell, pretty much any adjective you could associate with a prison could describe it. He heard a loud rattling sound, which only turned out to be Gir running his head through the bars. Gaz, Dib, and Kor were sitting against the bars, glaring angrily at Zim.
"What?" Zim asked.
"Attack Sequence SW? What the hell was that!" Gaz asked.
"A highly advance Irken combat maneuver defaulted into the hardware of Gir."
"Highly advance my ass! All he did was spin a hundred times, how does that aid in combat!"
"DO NOT BELITTLE THE POWER OF SPINNING!"
"Anything, and I mean ANYTHING would've been more helpful. I dunno, Gir's jets, your spider legs, hell, launching a sandwich at him would've been more effective. It always worked on Dib."
"Hey, those bread slices were whole wheat!" Dib interjected.
"Or here's an idea, maybe you could've pulled a blaster on him! He took twenty minutes before he even started firing."
"Well we were on a reconnaissance mission, blasters aren't needed," Zim said, "Now if we went with my vastly superior plan then of course I would've had blasters."
"It was a suicidal mission to storm a base, a most likely HEAVILY guarded base, without any prior knowledge of the building!"
"Suicidal tasks are always such problems with you humans."
"Shouldn't we stop them?" Dib asked Kor while Zim and Gaz were still going at it.
"Nah, watching those two fight is half the reason I like staying with you guys so much," Kor said. Zim and Gaz continued their argument until things escalated into physical violence, mostly from Gaz. "Alright, that's enough. Hey, you two stop your lover's quarrel so that we can actually think logically!"
"What Kor?" Gaz said.
"And what is this quarreling of lovers you speak of?" Zim asked.
"Zim, why don't you just contact Skoodge to find us. I'm sure he could track your signal if he's half as competent as he seems to be," Kor said.
"Yes, I shall contact Skoodge, what a brilliant idea that stemmed from my brain."
"Contact your friend and I get to get rid of the itch on my trigger finger," A light turned on, revealing the same Darvon that held them at gunpoint. He was standing against a wall, with the other Darvon creature, Kry, by his side.
"It's you! The hideous being that knocked me unconscious!"
"And I had fun doing it."
"How dare you harm the brain of Zim! You'll suffer a fate even worse than Zim's wrath! The pain will make you wish to feel Zim's wrath! Oh if only you could feel this wrath, it's squishy just like your innards!"
"Yeah? Well I-"
"Calm down, brother," The red Darvon, Ere, entered the room, "I apologize for my brother's, Daj's, hostility. Frankly, I'm not fond of you Irkens as well but I can at least overcome my own feelings for the sake of a mission. I must thank you for coming with us voluntarily though."
"Well you kind of knocked Zim into a building, I'd rather be captured with my bones intact," Dib said.
"Thank you for thinking logically, now our leader would like to speak with you all, more specifically you, the being with second lenses." Three beings then entered the room, two of them Dib vaguely remembered. The one in the center was covered from head to toe in some sort of armor. He walked in front of Dib, examining him.
"Oh wow, I can't believe it. Is it really you, Dib?" He spoke.
"We've met before?" Dib said questioningly.
"Of course, you were also the last human I ever saw since I left!" The armored leader removed his helmet, revealing the being underneath.
"No way! Mr. Dwicky? My old elementary school counseling teacher Mr Dwicky?"
"I'm so glad you remembered me, Dib! After all these years!"
"Well, you were the only one to ever give me a sense of companionship inside and at the same time rip it out. You also took the only proof of aliens with you when you left and was the only one I ever convinced that aliens exist, well only living person at least."
"Living?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Anyway, yes Dib, that was me!"
"Yeah, I was really pissed that day."
"Oh, is that Zim? Glad to see you two finally being friends."
"We aren't."
"So what brings you out to space?"
"Hold on, first off answer to me how the hell and why you're the leader of...whatever this is! To see another human in space is one thing but a human I not only know, but was once my counselor is just crazy!"
"Alright, I think you kids deserve the truth first. It all started years ago..."
When I left with Spoocti and Mooshy I was the happiest person in space. They were traveling merchants so I got to see so many planets, travel around, not through, stars, and with aliens! That was great for the year or so it lasted...
"So how you like space travel so far, man?" Spoocti was piloting the Plookesian vessel with Mooshy in the co-pilot's seat. Meanwhile, I was staring out a window of the ship, looking at the vast emptiness of space.
"This is such an out of mind experience!" I said.
"Hear that, Spoocti? Just travel a bit more and you'll get his brain to fall out of his head!" Mooshy said.
"Hahaha, that's so funny, Mooshy!" Spoocti calmed himself a bit after laughing so hard. "Hey, we're going to dock on Plookesia in order to restock on supplies, just giving you a heads up."
"Your home planet? Cool!" I had never seen their home planet before. Spoocti's and Mooshy's ship had vast amount of weaponry in their storage, so you can assume that it took a while for them to be low on supplies. I wasn't expecting the surprise when we got there.
"Wow, you planet looks so...uninhabitable," That was my first response after landing. Their home world looked like it was ripped apart, crumbled, and it was on fire too!
"Oh boy, this does not look good," Mooshy said.
"Spoocti, Mooshy, that you?" A battered Plookesian with a piece missing from his container unit came out from under the rubble.
"Peckry! What happened here?"
"Yeah, well, you know Vasen?"
"You mean that guy who looked like an Irken inside one of our container suits?"
"Yeah! Turns out, he was Irken, sent to invade our planet!"
"No way!"
"Jeez, I just thought he had a birth defect," Spoocti said.
"He just signaled the armada to completely conquer this planet so we have to get off this planet quickly!" Peckry said hastily.
"How long until they get here?"
"I don't-" There was a rumbling in the sky, soon it was littered by hundreds of purple ships, led by a ship that was a hundred times larger than the rest. A large cannon appeared on the large ship and it started charging, emitting a purple glow. We all stared, in awe at the size of the armada.
"Oh bo-" The laser fired, just missing Spoocti, Mooshy, and I, but Peckry disintegrated before our eyes.
"Listen guys, we gotta get out of here now!" Spoocti tried to lead us to the ship but another laser had cut us off. The other ships started firing, raining lasers and missiles down upon the planet, causing even more buildings to fall. We started running towards the ship once the laser passed, climbing over the debris, until I saw Spoocti and Mooshy getting far ahead of me.
I turned around to see that a building had fell on my bad leg, the adrenaline had caused me to not notice the debris hitting it. Spoocti and Mooshy noticed how I wasn't with them and turned around.
"Just leave me behind!" I yelled.
"Hey, now don't go off spitting lines like that," Spoocti said.
"Yeah, we'll get you out of here," Mooshy said. They tried pulling me out and lifting the debris but it didn't work. They looked at each other before facing me.
"Alright, we got an idea but it's gonna hurt, a lot."
"What are you going to do-AAHHHHHH!" I felt a very sharp pain. Mooshy then helped me up and I spotted a bloody pair of scissor like objects that he had. I looked down, seeing a bloody stump where my left leg used to be. "MY GOD! YOU CUT ME LEG OFF!"
"It's either that or dying," Spoocti put my other arm around his shoulder and they started running while carrying me.
"We'll fix it up in the ship, Dwicky, just try not to focus on the pain too much," Mooshy tried to reassure me. I started feeling faint from the loss of blood, but I held on until we reached the ship. They quickly tied my leg up to stop the blood and tried to start the ship.
"Spoocti, how are we gonna get past the Irkens without blowing up?" Mooshy asked.
"We gotta try something, Mooshy," he replied. The ship suddenly started shaking, it had been hit by one of the missiles. Everything grew dark, first it was the lights that shut off, then I feel unconscious.
When I woke up, things were still dark. I tried to struggle only to find Mooshy restraining me and keeping me silent. He and Spoocti had hid in a compartment with me, hearing the sound of Irkens exploring the ship. We hoped that we were well hidden enough for them to ignore us, but my luck just wasn't with me that day. Two Irken soldiers had opened the compartment, pulling us out.
"My Irk, what is that thing!" One of them said. It took me a bit to figure out they were talking about me.
"It's like some hideous...worm scum or something," Spoke the other one.
"Do, do we shoot it?"
"Ugh, the thought of its innards splattering all over me is too disgusting,"
"Jeez, you're right, man I touched that thing too!"
"Don't worry, you have gloves on."
"Yeah, but now I have to burn it, this was my favorite glove!"
"What do we do with it now?"
"Let's just put it back where we found it."
"What about the other two?"
"Man I don't care, if I have to stare at that thing any longer I'll burn my eyes."
"Alright then." They stood motionless for a couple of minutes.
"Well, what are you waiting for?"
"I'm not touching that thing."
"Why not?"
"Cause these are my favorite gloves."
"Man, I hate you. You better buy me a new pair of gloves, and from Gloventia too, not that cheap knock-off glove planet." And with that they shoved us back into the compartment. I never thought the day would come where bigotry saved my life.
"Sirs," A third Irken had appeared, "We found some weapons on the ship, there aren't that many but they're all of high quality."
"Good, just transport the ship to Oberox, I don't want to go any deeper into this ship to find another one of those things," said one of the original Irkens.
"What did you find?"
"Something that would haunt your nightmares and cause your waste to vomit."
Just like that, we found ourselves transported straight to a planet filled with Irkens. On Oberox I came face to face with Togan, the Irken in charge of this planet where he quickly got disturbed and discarded me, Spoocti, and Mooshy into the labor fields in the outer rim after trying to dig through my mind. Apparently he was grossed out by my experiences from before I became a counselor.
After spending one year in the fields and living with the other miserable laborers, I decided to brighten their spirits a bit. Using what I learned in my psychology classes, I motivated them but inadvertently caused them to riot and start a rebellion. Eventually I got placed as the leader for my ability to motivate the others. We raided Irken shipments for weapons, got my leg fixed, and I lived through many encounters with Togan, mostly because he didn't really care about us enough to wipe us all out.
"Honestly, he had good reason to not care, seeing as all our attacks against the fortress have failed except for recently. The resistance probably would've died out by now if it wasn't for me being so darn good at keeping our morale up," as Dwicky finished his story a saddened and crying resistance member walked by. "What's the matter soldier?"
"My brother died in the last raid, he had so much to live for!" The soldiered continued to weep.
"It's gonna be okay, buddy!" Dwicky patted him in the back, in an instant it was if new life had flown through the resistance member.
"I FEEL LIKE I CAN KILL 20 TOGANS! WOOOOOO!"
"See what I mean?"
"I still can't buy the fact that a teacher from our elementary school is a resistance leader," Gaz said.
"Stranger things have happened, I guess," Dib said.
"The sad part of that, Dib, is that you're actually right."
"Alright, so Mr Dwicky. You traveled through space, became a highly revered leader, and are now fighting for the common good of the universe?"
"That's right," Dwicky answered.
"Wow, that's everything I've always wanted!"
"I also still have the only recorded proof of aliens from all those years ago."
"Why couldn't this stuff happen to me!"
"He's like a grown up version of you, Dib, minus the crazy," Gaz said. She looked at Mr Dwicky to see one of his eyes twitch, "Maybe."
"So how did they fix your leg?"
"Let me show you," Spoocti said, he lifted Dwicky's leg and removed the armored boot, revealing a robotic prosthetic. "It took me and Mooshy forever to scrounge up part here, but we managed."
"Wow, that's so cool. I wish I had a robotic limb, minus the pain part of acquiring it of course."
"It gives him a higher jump, greater mobility and agility, and also kicks pretty hard too."
"Is that it? No rockets, hidden compartment for weapons, or laser swords?"
"Laser swords? Hahahaha, we don't have the intelligence or technology to make one of those, let alone attach it to a foot."
"If you're done with your geek talk, can you let us out of here?" Gaz said.
"Not just yet," Mooshy said, "First your Irken friend has to promise not to harm or sabotage us, otherwise he'll be shot on the spot."
"You dare strip me of my ability to inflict pain and bodily harm unto others?" Zim said.
"It's either you help us or die," Mooshy then pulled out a blaster and pointed it at Zim.
"Fine, I'll help you, but only because our goals are similar and to stop your incessant begging."
"Why are these drones always so delusional," Daj said.
"Eh, we can use the help," Ere said. He opened the door to the prison.
"It was open this entire time?" Dib asked.
"This is the first time we ever got prisoners, and we misplaced the lock ages ago. Usually, anybody we captured ended up dying."
"I'm sorry, Ere, for having an itchy trigger finger. Besides, it's not like I killed all of them, Kry killed all the ones I didn't," Daj said.
"You're all welcome in the resistance base for as long as you want or until Togan decides to finally destroy us all," Dwicky said.
"Human worm," Zim said, "If I am to succeed in my glorious plan I must look at all the data you gathered about the Irken armory."
"Certainly, my infiltration team was able to scan the interior despite giving their lives for it." Dwicky and the other resistance members led Zim and the others out of the room, while Daj stood behind them, in the same spot Zim had first found him after he woke up. Before leaving the room, Zim waited in the doorway.
"Mark my words, hideous lizard worm, while I may not be able to inflict any harm on you now, Zim will have his revenge for hitting me with your blaster."
Daj glared at him and spoke with a humored tone, "Try it, drone."
Derim was now a wasteland, it was as if the Irken Armada itself had attacked the planet. A lone Irken had hid under fallen debris. It had served him well so far as he had avoided dying in the main storming of the planet, though the bodies of the many Irkens he watched get slaughtered were not as lucky as he was. The beings had stormed the building he was working in, no, beings implied a sense of humanity, they were monsters. They marched in and fired their lasers, not at all disturbed by the carnage of their actions. Even when some of their own were shot and killed, they did not look back, they did not flinch, they just continued to march on.
The debris had fell on him during the fight, though injuring him, saved him from experiencing the same fate as the others. If he ever returned to Irk, he would be branded as a cowered and be banished to Dirt or Hobo 13, but he didn't care. He wanted to live. He hoped that the time would come soon for those things to leave the planet, so that he may escape. It was dark under the debris, he wanted to see the light again, to move freely again, to cool his parched mouth with liquids...
Tap. The noise had ruined the silence, his last comfort. Tap. It was a footstep, walking slowly. Tap. There were pauses between each step, as if the being was carefully searching its surroundings, looking for survivors, for him. Tap. He could feel his cold sweat dripping down his face, his squeedly spooch started beating faster and faster, which scared him even more since squeedly spooches don't beat. Tap. The footsteps stopped, right in front of him, he saw the being clearly. It wasn't a monster like the ones that killed all the others. It was...
The light had appeared abruptly upon him, the debris had been moved and he was staring the being in the eyes. He was grabbed by the neck and lifted up, into the air. He tried to struggle but couldn't get out of the grip.
"Y-you, y-you're Irken!" He cried, but she did not respond to his outburst. "You're suppose to be w-with us! To be fully obedient to the Tallest! The control brai-"
He couldn't talk anymore, his blood had filled his mouth. A sharp pain had been felt in his chest, he didn't need to look down, he knew what it was. The Irken let him go. The light reflected his still eyes, his body was motionless, his cold blood spilling from his jaws.
The Irken activated her communicator on her wrist, emitting a hologram of a shadowed figure.
"Planet has been cleared, sir, all Irken surveillance systems are now offline," she spoke to the Employer.
The Employer laughed softly at his first step to victory, "Muy bueno, Tak."