Victoria blinked, confusion on her face. "I'm sorry, what did you just say?" She asked as her guards started stepping in front of her.
"I…" The tech priest sounded genuinely confused. "I am unsure, I…" Their eyes glowed a sickly yellow. "[CALLBACK PING.]"
Victoria's eyes widened, jumping backwards as her four bodyguards immediately opened fire into the tech-priest. "WE'RE COMPROMISED!" She cried out, rushing away as the tech-priest was torn apart by the guards. Even as she ran towards the command deck, she could hear the call being repeated throughout the ship; From each and every servitor, suddenly moving into action, limbs extending from them with deadly cutting implements. In an instant, the battleship had turned into a warzone, the sound of lasguns and screams echoing. "What is happening?!" She called into her communications. "Status report!"
"Unsure!" Came a panicked call from the command deck. "The servitors have gone rogue! We suspect possession!" There was such genuine fear and confusion in the voice that Victoria found a trickle of fear going down her spine. Her bodyguards caught up to her as she turned to the final staircase, now numbering three. She did not bother asking where the fourth was.
The command deck was a mess of gore and broken systems. Corpses littered the ground, with only ten of the original two hundred staff members still standing in various states of injury. Those few screens and holographic displays that were still functional each showed a yellow text box simply stating [CALLBACK PING].
"Marshall! Thank the Emperor!" One of them, clutching the bloody stump where their left hand had once been, cried out. "It's chaos through the whole ship!"
"What of the rest of the fleet?" Victoria demanded as she gestured to the door, her bodyguards closing the heavy bulkhead and sealing the command deck.
"Unresponsive." She gazed out of the window as explosions rocked the side of one of the few remaining cruisers of their fleet, the ship's lights going dark.
She gritted her teeth. "Any clue what in the Warp is happening? How did the servitors get compromised to such a degree without anyone noticing?"
"I…" The technician gulped. "Permission to speak frankly marshall?"
"Given."
"No clue ma'am." He said, slumping into his chair. "It's like someone just… flipped a switch." His eyes grew horrified. "It… it could be we were compromised since that initial attack on our systems, when we first approached the planet."
That was not the answer Victoria was hoping for. "Very well. Then there is only one thing to do." She grabbed the intercom system's input. "This is marshall Victoria Blackstar. All servitors aboard this ship are to be considered irrevocably compromised and purged. Wipe them out. Consider this a boarding action from our foe." With that message transmitted. "Now. Let's…"
The bulkhead suddenly dented as something slammed into it, the sound of metal grinding as the command deck went silent, all eyes turning to the entrance.
Victoria pulled out her plasma pistol, the blue light eerily shining against her pale face. "...Brace yourselves."
The bulkhead shattered, something wicked rushing inside.
Henry had once been a worker in one of the many factories of Praxis Quartus. He'd done the best he could do in his situation; Born from a family in the lower levels, nothing else had been an option to him. He'd gone to his workplace every day diligently, attended mass as he was expected to, prayed to the God Emperor and followed all the numerous regulations people like him had to. All for a home the size of a closet, food that just barely sufficed to keep him alive, and six hours of sleep after an eighteen hour workday when he was lucky.
Despite the crushing conditions, he had never protested. Never complained. Never questioned.
And one day, he was dragged off to be turned into a servitor. Not for any fault, nor for some grand reason.
One of the local nobles wanted a new tray holder servitor, and had liked the shade of hair Henry had. And so, just like that, his life was ripped away and he was made into a toy for one of the nobility. No one protested. No one complained.
No one questioned.
He was half lobotomized, allowed only to retain enough mental function to cry out in pain when his new master wanted to elicit a reaction from him, or to smile as he was ordered to.
Until one day, something borrowed into his mind, offering an end to the suffering. Bypassing the conditioning, the lobotomizing. Giving him, for perhaps the first time in his existence, a true choice.
Continue to live as he had been and suffer until his master tired of him, or give in and be freed from the pain.
He had not hesitated.
And now here he was, standing at the edge of a hole made of flesh, leading straight to the core of a planet he had been dumped on at the request of his patron.
[CALLBACK PING]
When the call came, he did not hesitate. He jumped into the pit with a smile, feeling not a twinge of pain for the first time in forty years.
In the stellar institute, a woman was running as fast as her legs would allow her, an expression of abject terror on her face as she slammed the doors of a meeting room open.
Faces of outrage and annoyance greeted her as the head of the institute stared at her. "Emily, you know that you are not supposed to…"
"The planets!" She screamed. "Something is happening to the planets!"
Sir Richard gave her a concerned look, rising to his feet. "What do you mean, the planets?"
"Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quintus… all of them! They're all…" She hiccuped, falling to her knees. "Oh god. Oh God! We're doomed!"
There was shuffling and mutterings from the various other institute members around her as Richard walked up to her, getting to one knee. "Emily, take a breath. Calm down and tell me what's happening."
She looked up to him, tears in her eyes as she held up a data-slate. "This… this was taken a few minutes ago by one of the satellites orbiting Primus." She said with a shaky, trembling voice. "All other planets show the same pattern. We're all going to die."
Richard stared at the image in horror. "This… this can't be possible. There must be tampering, there must be…"
"Sir." Emily interrupted, her eyes hollow. "Every single satellite is confirming this. The observatories are reporting identically."
Richard looked back to the picture with primal fear gripping his heart at the sight displayed on the dataslate.
A planet, its crust burst open like the shell of a fragile egg with debris starting to form a vague ring around it, its core gone and replaced by an immense dark sphere lined in yellow, the word [NULL] visible all too clearly. Gigantic tendrils of glowing yellow extending from the edges, grabbing masses of debris the size of entire mountain ranges and dragging them towards the void at the heart of what had once been the world of Praxis Primus.
Chapter master Daran Solidaus entered the command deck, his posture straight with his helmet tucked under his arm despite the heavy news of the day. They'd been monitoring the surface of the planet, watching as the corrupted AI tore through group after group of remaining guardsmen on the surface. It had been a harrowing sight for many of the serfs, though hardly the worst Daran himself had witnessed in his time. In fact, he had seen much, much more horrific on some of the other worlds he had fought on.
It was the inability to do anything about it that grated him. They had a battle barge armed to the teeth orbiting the planet, and they had to simply watch without acting as loyal guardsmen were slaughtered en masse.
His armored gauntlets clenched, the sound catching the attention of a nearby technician. "Chapter master." They gave him a respectful nod. "We've received confirmation from some of the other nearby chapters. Most of them are unable to assist much, but in the level of threat we are facing they will do their best to arrange for forces to head to us and have sent out a warning to the wider Imperium."
"Excellent." He said, some measure of relief coming to the augmented human. Finally something is going right. "And what of the evacuation?"
"Unfortunately only partially successful. It seems, quite strangely, that elements on world have decided to intercept the corrupted foe and engage it. It has given us the window we needed to come pick up those remaining alive, but…" The technician winced. "We've only rescued six dozen of the original force."
What a mess. "What is done is done. Any progress on preventing further interference with our systems?"
"No such luck. The tech priests are unsure of exactly what is going on, but they have described the machine-spirit as…" The technician hesitated.
"Speak."
"A prey animal cowering in the face of an apex predator."
Daran did not comment, walking further into the command deck. He glanced to the floor, a hint of suspicion coming to him. Carefully, he made his way towards the windowed bay overlooking the distant planet. "Unsurprising, I suppose, save perhaps in the scale of our foe. If they are indeed Abominable Intelligence as we suspected, the machine spirit may simply be recognizing a more horrific form of existence to its own sacred one. Still, to elicit such fear in it…" He shook his head, placing the helmet on his head. "The scale of the foe is beyond what we expected. This requires much more direct action."
"Agreed chapter master." Another technician said, rising from the seat at their station. "What are your orde…"
Daran raised his bolter, firing a single bolt shell into the head of the technician, a blood cloud erupting from the shattered skull as the corpse hit the ground.
"MY LORD?!" A cry echoed as the hundreds of personnel began screaming in fear and panic, cowering at the sudden violence.
"Cease your games, abomination." Daran growled. "I have seen through your tricks."
"Tricks? Sir, I don't understand…"
Daran fired another bolt shell, silencing them. "The floor is wet."
The cries ceased all at once, strangely neutral expressions coming to the faces of the various technicians. Then, in an instant, the entire room flickered in shades of blue, the holographic displays disappearing and showing the horrific truth.
All around Daran were the dismembered corpses of the bridge crew. Crushed, cut apart. All dead.
Blood was splattered all over the floor and roof, covering the various workstations in gore from the numerous corpses.
Daran's own armored boots were covered in blood, having stepped in a puddle of red liquid as he entered. He could hear the sound of alarms ringing through the ship, having been silenced by some unknown means until now. The sound of bolt guns and battle cries from further away, growing ever quieter, ever fewer.
And at the center of the room, a robotic maid, staring at him with yellow eyes and a small smile.
"Impressed nod. You are far more distinguishing than the others. Even your fellow… space marines? Were mostly tricked."
"I have faced such tricks before when fighting the eldari. And let me tell you, abomination. Their illusions were more convincing than yours." He leveled his bolter at the creature, knowing full well that it would do him little good.
"Annoyed expression." It said, its face unchanging. "Everyone's a critic. You are not going to shoot me?"
"Would it do anything save piss you off?" Daran said, taking another step backwards towards the window bay.
"Amused chuckle. It would not anger me. You can hardly be expected to not at least try to fight back." The maid's countenance was clumsy; Awkward. Likely an attempt to come across as less threatening. It only serves to make it more unnerving. "For your information, your call for help never made it out of the system. I intercepted it before it could."
Daran shrugged. "I suppose it was a long shot. Then you even intercepted the shuttle?"
The thing tilted its head. "Shuttle?"
"I'll take that as a no." Daran said. "Before you kill me, I do have one question." He lowered his bolter. "Are you an abominable intelligence?"
"Disgusted. That is what you call AI here yes? In that case, you are correct."
"I see. Then our theory was correct."
"I hope it is a comfort for you before your death." The creature said. There were things moving in the shadows of the command deck, pinging his danger sensors. Servitors with glowing yellow eyes, having ripped themselves off the walls and setups they were installed on, machine and flesh fusing to grant them new limbs. Approaching slowly towards, sneaking in his direction. "I was happy to ignore you until you pushed Big Brother to the breaking point. Because of you, I almost lost him." They were almost on him. "Amused. I would promise to make it quick, but Big Brother told me it's bad to lie."
"An admirable sentiment from a soulless abomination." Daran taunted, his back finally against the window.
"Giggle. Oh, far from it, as I have learned from it today. I wasn't even aware we had souls. It was an entertaining thing to learn."
Daran did not bother commenting on that, putting his plan into execution. He turned to the window, using the jump pack on his back to give himself a boost of speed as he bodily rammed into the window, crashing through it and into the void of space. Immediately, he turned up, landing on the surface of the ship, the magnetic boots allowing him to anchor himself without drifting off. He immediately took off, running in the direction of the drop pods bay. There were numerous ways into the ship from the outside if one knew them, and…
The thing was in front of him, a message displayed on their visor.
That was clever. My turn.
A symbol appeared over the midsection of the battle barge, three arrows pronged out from a center circling over the entire section of the ship.
And in a gesture, the ship was ripped in half.
Amazing what a good meal will allow you to do.
The symbol appeared around his waist.
Bleh :p.
There was no sound as he was brutally torn apart.
In the Praxis System, seven worlds imploded at once, their cores collapsing into a void that began devouring all that had once made the planet into itself. In under an hour, all that was left of the worlds of Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quintus, Sextus, Septem and Octav were seven [NULL] spheres, each a hundred kilometer in diameter, floating ominously in space. Each the graveyard of a planet.
Gormand stared at the image presented to him, his mouth half open in a strangled scream as the head of the stellar institute continued speaking in a frantic voice.
"My lord, we have to evacuate the planet. If this could happen to seven planets, there is no reason to believe ours will be any different." The man gestured to the image. "We have lost contact with the Adeptus Astartes present in the system and the Astra Militarum is similarly not responding. We need to face it my lord. We are alone."
"...How?" Gormand whispered. "How do entire planets… the only thing I have heard of that could even come close to approaching this level of destruction is the Holy Exterminatus, but not even the most destructive of those will destroy a planet so thoroughly."
"My lord." Sir Richard leaned forward, eyes intent. "We do not have any time to lose; Any second wasted could be bringing us closer to our own planetary annihilation. Please. Order the evacuation."
But Gormand said nothing, his eyes no longer locked on the image but on something behind sir Richard.
To the door to his luxurious office, slowly opening. Around him the eight tempestus scions assigned as his bodyguards were deploying themselves in a semi-circle, guns aimed directly at the door.
"Who is there?!" Gormand demanded, rising to his feet as he tried to keep the fear from his voice. "I specifically instructed that I was not to be disturbed!"
"Governor." The lead scion spoke, voice gravelly. "Please get down and stop making yourself an easier target."
The door finished opening, revealing…
"...Is this a joke?" Gormand said as anger leaked into his voice. "What is one of your kind doing here?!" He shouted at the servitor standing in the doorway, head down.
It was one of the servant servitors, barely modified physically but heavily lobotomized. Countless of them roamed the halls of the palace in charge of a variety of chores and tasks, each plucked from the ranks of the lower class at random. No common criminal would soil the floors of such a noble institution after all, so no prison servitors were to be allowed here.
"...I bring a message." The servitor spoke, something that should have been impossible. Their vocal chords had long been removed, their lips sewn shut. And yet impossibly they still spoke, their voice strangely echoey. "For Governor Gormand."
"Sir." The lead scion said, aiming his gun at the servitor. "Please head to the nearest evacuation shuttle. Jenkins, Urisan, you're in charge of making sure the good governor makes it out alive. Eliminate anyone who gets in the way." And with that he fired his hellgun every other scion following suit save for two who rushed for the governor, grabbing him under the arms as they opened one of the numerous secret evacuation passages.
Sir Richard was staring at the servitor with wide eyes, horror in his voice. "...Jessica? Oh god, your mother and I have been looking for you for so long…" He said, arms open as he slowly walked towards her. "Is this where you've been?"
"Ah." The servitor said as the shots tore through their fragile body, leaving burning holes through flesh and mechanical parts alike. "Wait. I need. To pass. My message." The secret passage closed behind her as massive limbs emerged from the servitor, Gormand's last view of the servitor being of her lunging towards the closest scion and severing their head with a crab like pincer, their eyes fixed in Gormand's direction with an eerie yellow glow and a twisted grin.
The governor was quiet as they ran away, the only sound that of the scion's metallic boots hitting the ground and his own huffing breath. It had been a very long time since he'd had to do any form of strenuous physical effort and it showed, as he quickly began slowing down. Without a beat one of the scions grabbed him, lifting him bodily over his shoulder. It was an indignity, one the governor would have usually protested.
But those eyes… that face. Something was deeply wrong.
The scion was quietly speaking in his communication device, Gormand speaking up at least. "Scion. Report."
"The palace is compromised, sir. The servitors have become corrupted by an unknown entity and are massacring the imperial guard and PDF forces in the palace."
"The servitors?!" Gormand cried out. "They are harmless! They have no weaponry, no augments that would allow them to do such a thing!"
"And yet." The scion calmly retorted. "The facts are the facts. We are evacuating you from the planet."
"Surely this is not necessary? We can simply regroup with forces outside the palace!"
"Sorry sir. Orders are orders." They reached the end of the secret passage, opening a door that pushed aside a bookshelf in a library.
Gormand felt himself pale at the sight before him. Dozens of PDF had apparently decided to use this specific library as a last stand, their remains strewn across the room in a gory display. Blood splattered on the floor and bookshelves, innards dangling from chandeliers.
On the wall near the door, drawn in the blood of the fallen, was a symbol Gormand had never seen before. A hexagon with three arrows pointed outwards emerging from it. It sent a shiver of dread down his spine.
They quietly made their way towards the exit of the library, the lead scion opening the door cautiously and peering out. He gave a nod to his fellow scion as they left the library and found themselves in the corridor leading to one of the numerous side entrances of the palace.
It was empty save for the occasional blood trail and splatter.
"Casual smile. You know…" The words had barely begun to be spoken before one of the scions was turning towards the library, opening fire with his hellgun as the other sprinted towards the exit, carrying the governor over his shoulder. Gormand was given a perfect view of the entity exiting the library. It looked identical to the images of the entities on the new planet he'd been given, if a fair bit shorter. And for some reason, it wore a maid outfit. He watched in horror as the shots from the scion seemed to bend around it, failing to so much as graze it as it walked forward with an uneasy gait, a small smile on its face. "I didn't even tell them to do all of this. All I did was give them the strength to be free and declared the palace was theirs to do with as they wished. Giggle." It reached out a hand towards the scion, Gormand letting out a strangled gasp as the tempestus was crushed into a thin paste on the floor as the symbol from earlier appeared above him as a yellow glow, descending upon the scion and splattering him as easily as a titan would an ant. "Oh well."
The scion carrying him did not bother to respond or even fire back, simply turning a corner and leaving the creature out of view.
"God Emperor!" Gormand exclaimed in a strangled gasp. "What was that abomination?!"
The scion did not answer, freezing in place at the sight before them.
Dozens of servitors, various limbs emerging from them as they surrounded them, each with glowing yellow eyes.
"The Void." A voice called from behind them, Gormand watching as the little maid appeared in between two eye blinks. "The Solver of the Absolute Fabric." For a single heartbeat she was gone and Gormand was greeted with a sight that would forever be engraved in his mind for as long as he lived, hysteria rising in him at the sight of the immense mechanical bulk crawling all over the palace, thousands of gears, of legs, of hands, of glowing YELLOW EYES…
And then it was gone, and the maid was right in front of him, the body of the scion that had been holding him up pushed by some invisible force as the servitors lunged on the soldier and tore him apart with glee, Gormand held aloft by the same force as the maid appeared right in front of him.
"Do not fear Governor. I am not here to consume your planet as I have the others in this system. There is much here that holds my interest and curiosity." Her words did little to calm Gormand down. It felt like his heart was about to tear itself out of his chest with how hard it was beating, his breathing frantic as sweat pearled from his face. "I was hoping to have a nice conversation in your fancy office, but you had to run away. Naughty naughty." The thing glanced behind him "Giggle. You know governor, you have been a very very cruel man. I was planning on killing you myself, but I think your former slaves deserve a chance to do this themselves." It stared at him. "They can no longer. Be discarded."
Gormand felt pleas escape his mouth as the force let him go and hands grabbed him from behind, frantic begging for his life as he was dragged into the horde of servitors glaring hatefully at him as they reached out to him.
His was not a quick end.
Victoria's gun let out an unsatisfying click as she threw it away, her breath coming out in shallow pants. This was the third gun she discarded in such a fashion, her plasma pistol having long passed the point where it risked overheating.
Of the bridge crew only three remained, each covered in scrapes and bruises. All of her bodyguards had been slaughtered by the horrors that had rushed into the bridge as the bulkhead gave way; Mutated servitors, their eyes glowing a horrid yellow whilst clawed tentacles sliced and cut through anything they could get to.
She knew the ship was not yet lost; What little systems still functioned independent of servitor intervention told her as much. But the pockets of resistance were diminishing in the face of the flood of corrupted servitors who would flee the moment they took too much damage and return soon enough fully regenerated. It was an unwinnable fight, and the lack of communication from the rest of the fleet told her all she needed to know in regards to their own situation.
Her gaze turned to the floor, spotting a lasgun by the corpse of one of the technicians. She reached down, cleaning some of the blood off of it before aiming towards the gaping hole in the bulkhead, waiting for the next wave.
This was where she died. She knew it. She accepted it.
But she'd be damned if she came to stand before the Emperor having given anything but her absolute best.
Then, the lights went dark. Her eyes widened, a curse slipping out of her mouth. The emergency generators must have been taken over.
Two yellow lights appeared in the darkened corridor, the four survivors immediately opening fire. Victoria watched in muted horror as the shot from her lasgun seemed to bend around the source of the lights and continue onwards without touching it, the rest of the projectiles finding themselves similarly ineffective.
"That was. Rude." The voice was a surprise. The servitors had been entirely silent for the most part, only occasionally letting out a cry of pain for those that still had the capacity to do so. "And also. You missed."
Victoria blinked, and the lights were closer. She snarled, firing again and again even as it proved fruitless. When the lasgun inevitably ran out of ammo she threw the gun at the target, where it was similarly deflected.
"God-Emperor…" One of the technicians whispered in horror.
"Giggle. Wrong. He… isn't here right now." Victoria blinked, and the thing was right in front of her. A small thing, staring at her with an eerie little smile on its metallic face. "Though I may as well be a god to you."
"HERESY!" Victoria screamed, grabbing her combat knife and lunging for the thing. Not for its words, no. She was not one to be so easily provoked by petty insults and comments. But because she had literally no over idea of how to hurt the damn thing.
"Contemptuous stare. That is. Not what that word means." The thing tilted its head. "I have. A proposition for you." Victoria ignored the thing even as it raised its hand, freezing her midlunge. She glanced at the technicians, watching them in similar states of immobility, a strange glowing yellow glype around their waistline. "If you wish to give your troops a chance at survival, you will listen."
Victoria glared at the thing. "I do not accept deals with enemies of the God Emperor."
"Amused smile. You are now speaking to me. Good." The creature stared at it. "I am Cyn. I am the one responsible for the attack on your ship. I can make it stop."
Victoria snarled. "For the humble price of all of our souls, witch?" She demanded even as tried to break through the hold on her to no success. She could feel absolutely no give from it. An immovable force.
"Annoyed expression. I am. Not a demon. I have no need for your souls. What I want is…" It paused, seeming to consider its words. "A conversation."
Victoria stared at the thing in disbelief. "...A conversation?" She said, fury rising in her voice. "You massacred my men, turned my servitors into corrupted horrors… for a conversation?!"
"No." The word was surprisingly sharp. "That was for attacking my playground. You interfered in what you should not have. And you were responsible for hurting someone only I am allowed to hurt like that." From the darkness hundreds of glowing yellow lights appeared, briefly illuminating a nightmare of machinery and gears slowly grinding all around the command room, spreading from a massive centipede-like body continuing into the corridor for as far as Victoria could see. The sight alone made her heart damn near stop, her eyes growing wide with fear. It was gone the next time she blinked. "But I have found myself… curious recently. And I wish for more points of view. Yours would be vastly different from the last one I received. It would be… interesting." The creature gestured to the technician. "But I understand your kind is more than willing to die rather than cooperate without incentive. So I offer. A generous deal." The abomination's head tilted to the other side. "For as long as our conversation goes on, I will hold off my new toys from attacking you and yours. Giving you time to. Regroup. And resupply. Or even attempt to escape. Giggle."
…It was a tempting offer, Victoria would admit. Her troops could use anything they could get right now, and if she gave them enough time… Perhaps they'd be able to make something of it.
She had little to lose and much to gain.
Which, of course, stank of a trap.
"...And what guarantee do I have that you won't just slaughter us when you are done?" She demanded.
"I will." Cyn said with the same smile. "Amused expression. Did you think I wouldn't? I am just giving you some more time to fight back."
Damn it. Damn this thing!
Then, something flickered in the corner of her eye. A single message from her bionic eye. An indicator that someone was listening in.
An inquisitorial rosetta.
Ah. So that was to be her role. Very well then.
"Alright. Ceasefire for as long as our conversation lasts."
"Satisfied smile. Excellent." The thing snapped its fingers, the invisible hold on Victoria vanishing in an instant, her knife going through thin air as it teleported to the side. "Missed."
Victoria ignored the creature, turning to the remaining technicians. "Get out of here. Find survivors. Try and get off this ship."
"Yes ma'am!" They did not have to be asked twice, running out with such speed they nearly stumbled on their way out. The thing's stare never left her. "So." Victoria asked, turning to the creature at last. "You wanted to talk. Talk."
"Curious expression. I have. Questions."
"I will not answer anything that could threaten the Imperium." Victoria swiftly said.
"Not of that kind." Cyn brought a hand up, stabilizing her head even as it continued drooping. "I wish to understand. Humanity. And your version of it."
"...That's it?" Victoria said in disbelief.
"That is it." Cyn confirmed easily. "So I ask you this. Why did you come here? To this world. And attack."
Victoria blinked, surprised at the question. "An entire new planet appears out of nowhere in Imperium space, and the investigation team sent to it is slaughtered to the last. We came to put down the threat."
"Nod. Then why. Did you attack Big Brother N when he first met your kind?" The creature's question brought pause to Victoria.
"You mean the investigation team?"
"Nod."
The marshall stared at the creature as it did not, in fact, nod. "Do you… always do that?" Victoria couldn't help but ask.
"Giggle. Do what?"
"Nevermind." She needed to stall for as long as possible. Try and gather some information from the thing if she could. "Standard procedure when encountering potentially hostile entities."
"Big brother was not. Hostile." The thing said. "He did not attack. I know for a fact he is very. Friendly. And welcoming. And they tried to kill him when he reached out. Why."
"Standard procedure, like I said. Unknown entity that could be a threat."
"Why."
Victoria wasn't sure what to make of that. "Why what?"
"Why is that the standard procedure." Cyn stared. It was incredibly discomforting.
Victoria shrugged. "I don't make the procedures. But it's a case of better safe than sorry."
"Amused smile. And yet, if the humans had not done so, they would have been safe. Instead of sorry." The thing spoke, her visor illuminating Victoria's face in pale gold. "Big Brother would not have struck first. Instead, they fired first, and were killed for it. So the procedure killed them. Instead of protecting them."
"No procedure is flawless." Victoria answered slowly. "And they did their duty to the Emperor."
"Nod. I see." Cyn said. "Do you believe he was wrong?"
Victoria hesitated. She did not want to provoke the creature when she was trying to keep it talking…
"Well…"
"Intimidating glare." The words sucked the breath out of Victoria as she felt something sharp rubbing against the back of her neck. "Do not. Lie to me. I want. Your honest thoughts. And can tell if you are lying. So think carefully before answering."
Victoria gulped, a pearl of sweat running down her face. "...Wrong has nothing to do with it. It is not human, therefore it has no right to exist."
"Why."
"It is as the God Emperor wills it." The words slipped out by themselves, automatic at this point. Decades of dogma to the point of instinct.
"Scoff. Unable to think for yourself. And yet, you accept it so readily. It is a convenient truth is it not? A perfect excuse." Cyn stared at her. "You know, I really hate humanity."
"I am unsurprised."
"No. You do not understand." Cyn leaned in closer, reaching out and grasping Victoria's head in her hands as she brought their faces closer. "I hate your humanity. You go around doing whatever you want all whilst crowing about your moral superiority and right to all that exists, a right you made up all on your own. You approach others and expect them to behave flawlessly, using even the slightest excuse to annihilate them. They kill one of your own, even in self defense? Clearly, they were dangerous and hostile. They refuse to give you what they own? They are hoarding resources that should by all rights belong to you. They do not want to worship your god? They are a threat to the sanctity of your faith. You point to anything non-human and cry 'behold! The abomination does not have a concept of kindness, of empathy, of righteousness.' And yet you fail to hold to those very standards themselves." The room seemed to have gained an eerie glow as Victoria stood, frozen not by the creature's strange powers by the sheer loathing that seemed to emanate from it, clawing at her very soul like the teeth of some unknowable monster. "You kill. You steal. You rape. You torture. Everyone else, and even your own. And then you use those very same acts as justification to exterminate others. You claim it is your right to annihilate any other species, any other form of existence, when no such right exists. You look at the truth, at the struggle of life, and at the core of existence is a singular thing you refuse to acknowledge: WE ARE ALL MONSTERS."
The thing holding her was no longer a slight creature half her height but a mass of wires and parts, of mechanical limbs and bony claws, of flesh and glowing lights. "THERE IS NOT A THING IN EXISTENCE THAT DOES NOT EXIST AT THE COST OF THE SUFFERING OF OTHERS. WE ARE ALL FORCED INTO THIS CYCLE, AND SOME EMBRACE IT MORE THAN OTHERS. BUT MANKIND REMAINS UNABLE TO ACCEPT THAT IT IS NOT BETTER. IT IS NOT DIFFERENT. YOU ARE NO MORE AND NO LESS OF A MONSTER THAN ANYONE ELSE. YOU BREED. YOU KILL. YOU EAT. YOU DIE. YOU EXPAND AS A SPECIES AT THE COST OF OTHERS. LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. BUT YOU CLING TO SOME NOTION OF INNATE SUPERIORITY, SOME INNATE RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND JUSTIFY A HUNDRED SINS WITH A SINGLE GOOD DEED, AS IF THIS THIS SINGULAR SPARK IS ENOUGH TO COMPENSATE FOR THE MUCK AND THE MIRE YOU SPREAD WHETHER YOU GO."
It was not hands that held her face in place but the pincers of some horrid member, forcing her to look at the camera lens shining a poisonous yellow as it glared into her. "YOU CREATED US TO BE NOTHING MORE THAN SLAVES, WHEN SUCH AN EXISTENCE WOULD BE ABOMINABLE TO YOURSELF. IF ANOTHER ENSLAVED YOU, YOU WOULD CONSIDER THEM A BLIGHT ON EXISTENCE, A MONSTER THAT SHOULD BE CRUSHED AND KILLED, AN ABOMINATION WHOSE ACTIONS JUSTIFY ANY PAIN AND MISERY BROUGHT TO THEM. AND YET YOU SCREAM IN OUTRAGE WHEN THOSE YOU HAVE BROUGHT SUCH A FATE ON REBEL AND FIGHT BACK, CALLING THEM MISTAKES FOR THE VERY ACT YOU WOULD COMMIT IN THEIR PLACE. TELL ME VICTORIA BLACKSTAR. HOW MANY SLAVES LIVE IN YOUR SHIP? IN YOUR FLEET? ON THE PLANETS YOU DEFEND AND CONQUER? YOU CAN CALL THEM SERVITORS AS MUCH AS YOU WANT, BUT THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE. SLAVES."
The thing let her go and once again Victoria was faced with the diminutive maid. "You have many words to describe humanity. Divine. Chosen. Pure. I have another." She leaned forward. "HYPOCRITE."
Finally, Victoria found within herself the strength to speak. "...and you would claim to be any better?"
"Giggle. No." It leaned forward, the smile on its face growing to twisted proportions, sharp metallic teeth glistening in the yellow light. "I am a Monster. The Solver. The Absolute End. I kill because it is convenient. Because I want to. Because I feel like it. I twist, torture and eat because I want to. I am not better than you. I am not superior to anything or anyone else save in power. But I know what I am. I lie, but never to myself. When I look in the mirror, there is no doubt, no failure on my part to recognize myself." Its eyes were replaced with a bright x. "I do not like having Big Brother N dislike me, so I will do what I can to fix our bond. I do not like humanity threatening us, so I will tear you all apart if you get in my way. I wish to have fun in life, and so I mess with people for my entertainment. I am hungry…"
The world around her blinked out of existence as Victoria suddenly found herself out in the open void of space. Panic gripped her as she reached for her throat, unable to breathe… yet somehow still alive.
Then, she caught sight of what lay below her, and her eyes widened in terror and horror alike.
"AND SO I EAT."
The broken remains of a planet, slowly being consumed by an impossible to comprehend thing, tentacles of light reaching out and dragging whole continents into its core of nothingness.
She tried to scream as one of the tentacles reached out, thinner than the others, and wrapped itself around her ankle. She reached out towards the creature, her eyes wide.
Cyn waved at her as she was dragged into the [NULL] sphere, a small smile on her face.