I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, while the Dread Lords and Drengin were busy killing each other in orbit of the planet, they hadn't even noticed the ruins, and, luckily for me, weren't even fighting overhead of them. Taking advantage of my advanced stealth systems, I landed a few fabbers nearby the ruins and began setting up lots and lots of umbrellas, in case they came too close for comfort, as well as several factories so that I could quickly get them out of the way. I was already massing up a fleet to destroy both sides, but in the event they landed, I wanted to have something besides orbital bombardment to use to deal with them.
I also had some of the fabbers get to work building a massive energy shield derived from native technology, but massively improved to block all attacks, regardless of their nature. Best to be sure that the ruins were safe before I dealt with the warring fleets in orbit.
So far, so go-what, what's this?
...Some kind of strange signal? And its coming from the ruins?
Well, lets send a scout to investigate.
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Above the world's surface, the two fleets raged on, pounding each other into dust. Each side desired the planet for the same reason - its close proximity to an extremely rich asteroid belt that could feed their war machine's for decades on end. That kind of material wealth was definitely worth fighting for.
To Iacturos, it was meaningless. The wealth in the asteroids was of no concern to him - no, what he was interested in lied on the planet's surface, having spent millennia there, decaying every so slowly in piece. Now, though, it was time to bring it home.
Things had been complicated by the fact that the planet somehow resisted his ability to instantly teleport it away, and the arrival of the Commander had only muddied them further. The ROB had been forced to hide in the ruins to avoid the commander's sight, and there was only so long before the commander found him. Even if he was invisible to the commander's sensors, the boy need only look through one of his scout's to see him, if he found him, of course. Which given the fact that the boy was putting up an increasingly large number of defenses around the ruins, was only become more and more likely as time dragged on.
Sure enough, a scout began rolling toward the ruins, clearly intent on searching them for...something. Curious as to where it was going, Iacturos followed it, always being sure to put at least one large piece of ruins between himself and the vehicle. Eventually, it came to a stop in front of one very large piece of ruins. At first, Iacturos was confused - why was this piece more important than the rest? Was it emitting some kind of signal?
Apparently it was. As the ROB stared on, confused, he noticed that the ruins looked familiar. Perhaps it was some kind of old progenitor structure he'd found in another universe? It seemed to have three towers on it, along with a large set of stairs leading up the base toward its mid section.
Then he look at the ruins again, and he went rigid with shock.
Yes, he did recognize these ruins. But they weren't from a commander.
The towers were not towers, but arms and a head, while the stairs were really a set of treads. And, if he looked hard enough, he could make out a circle on the central tower, one that looked suspiciously like an eye.
All in all, it wasn't hard to make out the shape of an Aeson Commander.
...which the scout was now scanning...
"Oh balls," swore the ROB.
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You're kidding me.
A PROGENETOR COMMANDER!? HERE?!
Quickly, I started scanning the commander, trying to find out why it had emitted the signal. Distress, perhaps?
Maybe it had been a warn-AGH, PAINPAINPAINPAINPAINSOMUCHPAIN!
MAKE IT STOP!
AGGGHHH-and now its gone. Ahh...
Ugh, what the hell was that about?
Curiously, I looked around the ruins, trying to see if there was anything else that could make sense of what I'd seen. I briefly reset the sensors on the scout to see if that would help.
When they came back online, what I saw caused me to blink.
Yes, I was still looking at the ruins.
Only now, they weren't ruins.
Now, they were, well, pristine, like they had just been built.
Confused, I blinked again, and suddenly everything was back to normal.
...okay, that isn't good.
Also, the Dread Lords and Drengin were starting to move their fighting toward the part of the planet where the ruins were. Time to deal with them.
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The first hint both sides had that I was going to crush them was when a large number of their ships were suddenly blasted out of existence by a barrage of fire from my umbrellas, after which I proceeded to sick my orbital fighters and some Omegas I'd just moved in on them, causing both sides to quickly become confused and disoriented. I couldn't help but enjoy the epic battle and laugh at their pathetic attempts to stop me.
Then my vision blurred, and when it cleared, I saw a new sight - a fleet of classic PA ships fighting the Dread Lords. None of my new ships, none of the Drengin's, just classic PA tech verses Dread Lords.
What the hell?
Then my vision blurred again, and once it cleared, the three way battle between me, the Drengin and the Dread Lords had resumed.
Okay, things were really getting weird now.
Just what the heck had happened when I scanned that Commander?
...no time to ponder now, back to fighting.
It didn't take long for me to route both sides, who hastily attempted to retreat. 'Attempted' being the key word here - they were cut down to the last by my forces, with several falling down toward the planet below. I'd already planned for what to do next - having scanned the enemy vessels before the fight, I sent a false report to both sides claiming that the two forces had destroyed each other, which, given the size of the Drengin fleet, was actually reasonable. With both sides assuming the other had won the battle, I would have plenty of time to examine the ruins.
Briefly, I watched as a Drengin ship burned up in atmosphere, blazing over the ruins of something squid as it did so.
Yet again my vision blurred. Oh joy.
When it cleared, I found myself watching a Dread Lord vessel falling toward the planet, along with the magnificent explosion from its impact.
One last time, my vision blurred, and when it came back into focus, I was staring at the ruins again.
This time, though, I noticed something very worrying.
The squidlike ruins below...matched up EXACTLY with the way the Dread Lord ship had ended up following the crash.
Was I seeing the past?
Suddenly, I picked up a massive energy surge all over the planet. Before I could react, the world flowed brightly, then suddenly vanished.
...no. No. Hell no. NO FUCKING WAY! NOT THIS! COME BACK YOU STUPID PLANET!
"The planet you are talking does not have a mind, therefore it cannot be considered dumb or smart."
...who the hell was that?
"I'm sending you a picture right now."
A moment later, a picture showed up. My eyes widened as I stared at it. For many, the strange robed/armored figure in the picture would not elicit a reaction, but the sight did in fact manage to surprise me.
After all, this wasn't the only time he'd stolen a planet from me.
"I'm sorry for stealing it, but I have my orders."
"And who gave them to you?"
"My superior, Celempheros."
...WHAT?!
"My Superior has...reasons for allowing your 'sponsor' to send you on this adventure, and recovery of Progenitor artifacts is one of them. I apologize for the inconvenience."
SCREW YOU!
"Again, I'm sorry. I apologize in advance for any future interference I may have on your plans."
Then the line went dead.
...okay, what the hell did Celm have planned for me?
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AN: Read and Review! This is Flamela15k, signing off!