I am a Progenitor Commander, unlike my brethren I house the mind of a former human, General Standiss. Most of my kind have been hunted down and killed, two years ago Commander P-24...a Progenitor like myself and whom I considered a friend... was killed by Commander T-1124, a Theta model. Today I find myself fighting the very same commander alongside my last friend, a tank model commander and the last of his kind, Commander TK-993 (Jon), a domed headed commander and shaped as if he were a C-Whiz defense system of the old aircraft carriers. T-1124 knows we have come for him, his armies occupy almost the entirety of this solar system and are preparing for the final push to our position. Jon has been building Halley engines on our moon in preparation, our own army is waiting for the gate to open, our plan is risky but the outcome is worth the shot. Normally I do not enjoy killing off commanders, instead I do my best to capture them and terminate their destructive programming, but T-1124 has killed a friend, there will be no mercy. Our deep space radar dish picked up incoming orbital construction units, myself and Jon stood fast as we watched the enemy build the warp gate on our moon, soon blue light erupted from the ringed structure and T-1124's entire army swarmed through. Our defenses would only hold for a few second before being overwhelmed, their purpose was to not stop but to pull them farther into the planet to our target zone. Our gunships made passing runs darting in picking off some of the heavier units before falling back, soon we had pulled in T-1124's entire army from at least 2 planets, I could already see them building their own forward outpost and unit factories. Soon just our base was all that was left, the enemy had encircled us as we had hoped they would, I gave the order to to our orbital transports for for pickup, the enemy surged forward not wanting to miss and opportunity to shoot us down. The defenses held just long enough for us to make our escape into orbit. I then proceeded to activate the halley engines and I sent that bastard's army back into his face. Later we landed on T-1124's stronghold world, we quickly built and army and began searching for the remains of T-1124. We found him buried in rock and dirt that had pinned him to the ground, his legs were crippled and I could see his one eye shift and focus on me as I stood over him. His arm slowly moved and aimed at me...I placed my foot over his face and pressed down as hard until his face was nothing ore that a metal pancake. Jon swiveled around to face me, a two letter message from him popped up on my HUD, "GG."
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No, it isn't random.
"Landed. Initiating first-build protocol... Basic resources attained, creating factory...Factory built, scouting area and creating additional power....Creating armed forces...Enemy detected, sending raiding party to deny resources, creating additional factories and resource generators...Establishing defensive perimeter, creating air force... Enemy attacking, rerouting land forces...Enemy repelled, minimal losses...Establishing orbital forces, heavy enemy presence... Enemy orbital forces neutralized, creating orbital radar... Creating nuclear launcher... Enemy nuclear defences detected, sending attack force...Nuclear defences neutralized...Launching nuclear attack...Enemy commander destroyed, searching for next engagement..."
Finally got around to writing my short story up, hope you guys enjoy it. This is the first pass so it may be a little rough but i think its ok for now. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Obelisk Of Light - Part One The clawing sands whipped across the face of Commander Claudius, threatening to strip what little paint remained from the Legionnaires exposed faceplate. A large, and imposing Imperator type commander, Claudius was not unaccustomed to fighting across a myriad worlds with similar harsh conditions. For longer than he could remember, he had fought in the depths of space, each battle taking him further rimward as he attempted to establish the Pax Mechana. In annoyance, he reached out with his mind, and deactivated his pain sensors from being able to sense the outside world. His tank column had been moving forward only minutes before, crawling their way slowly between two sand dunes, when a devastating counter attack by his nemesis had seen them all destroyed in seconds. With his enemies hiding beneath the surface, he had noticed only too late when the mobile mine drones had erupted from their surface and delivered their tactical nuclear payload at close range. His external sensors still read the area as being bathed in a warm soup of radioactive particulates. In frustration, he sent our a short wave burst transmission to his transport in orbit. He would not give up on this world yet. His sneak attack may have failed, but the blasted Revenant commander would pay for the damage he had inflicted upon the sector, and the Legonis Machina mining operations. Even as his Praetorian dropship extended its four tentacles down and around his form, suspending him beneath its antigravity drive, his mind wandered over further thoughts of the conflict. For at least three solar cycles, every attempt he had made to break the through the lines of his enemy had failed. Every line his vanguards had broken through had been rebuilt, and rebuilt deeper, mines sown inbetween the trench lines and overseen by banks of laser batteries, railgun snipers, and disintegrator beams. Even a massive aerial assault, and nuclear bombardment of The Revenants frontal lines had not cracked their base open. Masses of fabricators had swarmed in, more than he had ever seen, rebuilding the 50 megaton warheads ground zero into a fortified crater base. Whilst surprised at their ability to recover, he knew that his enemy could not afford to lose this world. Their last stronghold in this star cluster, there was a real chance that this was their last stand. Claudius took in a wide angled view of the landscape below him. Large areas of the sand dunes had hardened into glass by the continual bombardments between sides. Even as he reached 60,000 feet, his optical zoom could pick out the small, ant like shapes of his Dox units struggling forward through mud and debris, trying to clamber one of the large fortified walls which surrounded the enemies continent fortress. They didn't get far: A snakelike pack defense drones slithered out from one of the many ports and within seconds the Dox had been reduced to scraps via their head mounted plasma cutters. Claudius felt something he had not felt in an age - a mounting, searing rage for the obstacle which stood between him and his goal as Praetor of the Gamma 17 sector. His glory was at stake, and no mindless, religious fanatic would stand in his way. As he broke orbit, he could see from his perched position one of the planets many, many moons. One of them in particular stood out: pitch black in colour, this moon was made of basaltic rock and obsidian, and hung like an ebony pearl against a backdrop of pearlescent stars. His sensors detected a significant amount of electromagnetic emissions - so it was still at work then he thought. He had met his 'ally' several weeks before, in a prolonged engagement in one of the tropical equatorial zones that spread along the planets equator. He had been leading the attack personally, surrounded by his hand picked elite bodyguard of centurion assault bots, when an ambush by enemy pyros had left his squad nothing but molten slag. Only by liberal use of his onboard dark matter cannon had he made it out alive, and mostly back to his own lines. It was then one of The Revenants support commanders had surrounded him with a force of Fast Assault Bots and their heavily armoured APCs expertly dropped in a daring aerial assault. In the ensuing battle, he had tried to evade his enemy by weaving through a dense tropical forest after he had blasted a hole through their circling line, but they had soon caught up to him. In a brief exchange of laser blasts, he had lost most of his external armour and had been thrown to the ground, his power core failing him. The fool of a Revenant support commander, with an air arrogance and pomposity had stood over him, gloating about how this kill would see him elevated to a full battlefield commander. He had continued on in a ranting monologue, about wiping the planet clean of life, when suddenly a large cracking breaking sound had spread throughout the area. A large, hulking machine erupted from the ground, its many legs supporting a bulky, spiderlike body adorned with many tentacled manipulators. At the centre of the beast glowed an enormous throbbing red eye, which fixated on the shocked support commander for several seconds before it bore down upon him with a brutal ferocity. His units scattered as electrical arcs flew from its body paralysing several of their number. The support commander brought his cannon up to fire, but Claudius had utilised his remaining energy to take it off at the wrist. One last stunned look passed across the support commanders face before the mass of oncoming death slammed into him. Lifting him and bearing him above it, the monstrous machine inserted tentacle after tentacle into the writhing form of the support commander, ripping and tearing out his vital components. A large, central and more snakelike appendage extended from below its crablike thorax, and with a preparing action impaled deeply into the support commanders chest. With a snapping sound, his form went limp. Slowly, the machine extracted his still throbbing power core, retracting the tentacle until its prize disappeared inside of its hull. Its entire body seemed to glisten and grow, and it shuddered slightly as it dropped the corpse of its prey. It had turned to Claudius then, and without speaking verbally, directed a burst of communication directly at him in the electromagnetic spectrum. "Planetary... contamination... Do you have... transport?..." It had asked. "Yes. But who are you? What are you?" he has responded. "The... Caretaker." It had responded. "Is... orbital.. facility... active?" It replied "What Orbital facility" Claudius replied. "Installation in orbit... must be made operational. Imperative... for system cleansing of... intruders. Are you Caretaker?" "I am Commander Claudius of the Legonis Machina, and ruler of this planet" Claudius boasted "Legonis Machina? Not... known. Ally... you will help... cleanse this planet of invasive.. parasite" it spoke, slowly. "Arrange.. transport.. for orbital... reactivation.. and alignment" it added. "Is this facility some kind of weapon?" Claudius inquired. "Yes... will eliminate enemy.. parasites. Give control of system.. to rightful owner... If you assist.. claim system." Claudius' positronic brain worked hard. He thought of all the territory he could control, all the space for metal extraction and power production, factories, lines upon lines of orbital railguns and the thrilling beat of the drum of the metallic war machine that would be under his command with the entire sector secured. He did not trust this machine, this rogue 'commander', but it offered him the victory he so desired. "A deal then." he stated. "I will transport you off this planet, o the facility. You will activate it, and pass control over to me, allowing me its use to take the system. In reply, you will see this system cleaned of the The Revenant parasites, and will be given territory of your own to control as a Commander of the Legonis Machina." "Caretaker no.. longer needs... territory. Only removal.. of parasites. Caretaker will renable... machine. Terms.. acceptable" it concluded. With the matter settled, he had walked with the machine through the mud, the shallow water, and the vegetation for what seemed like hours. It had gone entirely silent, and did not seem intent on carrying out any civil conversation. His attempts to bring up tactical nuclear doctrine, transporter blitzkrieg tactics and the merits of naval supremacy fell on deaf ears, the machine seemingly ignoring him. The fool. It would learn its mistake in slighting him, Claudius thought. Once the weapon was reactivated and his, he would simply assassinate it and leave its cold corpse in the vacuum of space, a permanent testament to his and Legonis Machinas supremacy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Obelisk Of Light - Part Two Claudius was awoken from his day dream as his transport placed him gently down in his main base on the other side of the planet. Lost in his own thoughts, he had drifted off unaware of the vast distances he had travelled in such a comparatively short amount of time. It wasnt too long before he was joined by a mass of combat fabricators, which poured soothing nano partciles over his body, repairing the damage from the previous battles. Surrounded by his factories that continually poured out his automated units, and deep behind his own fortifications, Claudius finally began to relax. However, a small amount of unease had built up on his ride through the stratosphere. What was the status of the weapon? He could hardly spare the time to organise the next attack, nevermind take a transport out to the staging site in orbit. With a mental command he reached out to one of his support commanders, a Commander Circero, and told him to begin hailing the Crab commander utilising one of the large, laser communication dishes he had had erected. It wasn't long before Circero had him patched through. His awareness transferred into a remote drone assgined to the site, and the harsh reds and oranges of the desert were replaced by the cold, dull greys and blacks of space. He could see on this flat, dark lunar plane the mass of cables, power generators, and other conventional tools arrayed between a maze of rubble - ruins from whatever civilisation had previously inhabited the system. He had a brief flashback to being taught by one of the other Legonis Machina commanders about the legend of the Precursors, but he pushed it to the back of his mind as he floted the drone closer towards a small base in the distance which lay nestled beneath a large, featureless obilisk. In the background, he could see the form of a stargate nearing completion. As he got closer the obilisk loomed higher and higher, and he could finally see swarms of bots milling around the towers base. They were not the same colour of his units - imperial blue and yellow, but instead black like the obilisk, with lines of azure energy seeming to run through their power conduits. "I see... you.. have... arrived." beamed a communication into the drones receptor. "I have. Why have you not contacted me sooner? We have planetary satellite coverage, and 80% Orbital Coverage with Anti Aerospace Frigates, There is no excuse for continued insubordination. We had a deal." "Deal... is operational.. still.... obelisk is... almost ready to fire. Victory is... soon" came the reply, almost hesistantly. "Why have you built a stargate and wasted significant time and resource? We have no need to redeploy our forces until this sector is secure. Why are the units I have given you reprogrammed and not displaying unit colours?" Claudius asked, angrily. "Units.. required.. new.. designation to be given. Star... gate.. required for beam.. alignment" it answered slowly. A smaller screen interuppted his view. It was Support Commander Cicero. "Commander Claudius, there is a matter that demands your immediate attention." He said, a distinct tone of panic within his voice. "What is it Circero? It better be important, for your sake." He could feel his distant ocular sensors on his original body narrow, as his awareness remained within the drone. "Yes, my lord" came the reply "It is The Revenant commander! They have attacked us with subterranean drill worms, their are furrows opening up everywhere along our frontal lines! Their tanks are pouring out behind our defensive lines and we are unable to stop them! We need you to direct the troops or we are facing being overrun!" It shocked silence, Claudius quickly assessed his options. There was no more time to debate the issue any longer. The weapon had to be activated, and now. How The Revenant had recovered to the point of being able to mount such an attack, and had done so entirely undetected, troubled him deeply. Claudius wanted it ended, and now. "Activate the weapon" he stated, bluntly "It is.. not.. ready yet" came the reply. "Make it ready, before I come to that moon myself and tear your processor out whilst your reactor still hums" Claudius hissed. "As.. you.. wish" came the reply. Disconnecting his awareness from the drone, he was soon back in his central command area. Rallying his centurions and nanolathing a flag bearing the colours of the Legonis Machina, Claudius strode out down the ramps of his mesa fortress, down their the multiple level tiered fortifications of his central command building and out,into the outer defense dunes that ran between the central area and the main external fortifications. Flanked on all sides now by his reinforcements, he could see from his vantage point a ferocious battle engaged below. Tunnels after tunnels had been rent open behind his trenches, his mines, his lasers, and the large, worm like miner contraptions even now continued to bore out from beneath the surface. their heads split open to reveal a gaping maw from where countless bots and vehicles poured forth. From the central worm vehicle he spotted a giant, 30 metre tall Assault Experimental stroll forth, atop it the banner of the The Revenant. Its matter cannons fired out wildly, devastating his forces that were embroiled in battle in front of him. With a wave of his arm and a networked command, Claudius strolled into battle accompanied by his legions of reinforcements. Just before they arrived, holkins after holkins rounds slammed into the earth, blasting apart Revenant and Legionnaire alike as several of the worm transports succumbed to the powerful shells. But it was not enough. Even as the fight was joined, Claudius knew that now the enemy were behind his defensive line, they would be unable to be stopped . At best, delayed, until the weapon could be fired or a new defensive line desperately established. The fighter raged for what seemed like hours. Despite his best attempts, slowly the Revenant line dvanced, and Claudius was soon forced into a fighting retreat. Tank after tank fell to his precision fire, but each time the enemy enacted a savage revenge, and slowly his bodyguard unit was reduced to ashes, their parts strewn across central commands access ramp as he was pushed backwards to the landing zone, towards the communication towers. The planet was lost! Without the weapon, the planet was lost! The shock almost numbed all feeling in his body, and Claudius momentarily froze. Circero died, his body slumping down in front of Claudius before detonating in a small nuclear explosion, taking a disintegrator blast meant for Claudius himself. The enemy was among his base now, disassembling it with wild abandon. Claudius attempted to run for his transport, but it was downed by a suicidal Peregrine whose pin holed carcass slammed into it at faster than the speed of sound. Debris scattered everywhere. Already caught off balance, Claudius managed to slice an enemy glaive to pieces moments before its vibroblade pierced his hull, only for seconds later to be knocked unconscious as the Experimental slammed into a row of buildings nearby, showering him with heavy solar panels, glass, and power cells. Everything went black. ... The weapon.. is ready... for firing... A faint voice bounced around the ocean of black serenity that Claudius was engulfed within, distant and faint. He was close to death. He knew this, and did not fear it, only anger and sadness at not being able to lead the sector to greater glory. But he would take the damned Revenant with him. Even as his vision returned, he could see the looming form of the experimental. He laughed at the irony of being in the same position again, at the mercy of another. "You have lost, pathetic sympathiser trash" came the reply from the machine, as its hatch opened and out came the enemy Revenant commander. A ball type, similar to his observation drone, but much larger, more menacing, and equipped with dis-integrator beams covering a full three hundred and sixty degree arc. "This planet is ours" it continued. "You and all traces of your kind will be expunged, and the planet terraformed into a haven for true machines" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Obelisk Of Light - Part Three ..Incorrect.. Came the voice again. The Caretaker. It was not only him who had heard it. The Revenant commander had stopped short to, its internal mechanisms confused. "What is this? Some Legionnaire trick?" It stated outloud. ..Incorrect.. Came the reply. ..The parasites will be purged. All... hail... the Precursors.. Both Claudius and the Revenant commander were seized with a new feeling. Fear. A strong pulse of electromagnetic energy was detected, and both commanders stared up at the sky from where it had originated from. A blinding light lanced out towards the sun, which flickered angrily in the sky, turning a dull orange colour as a web of unknown energy seemed to spread over its surface, which began to visibly crack like glass. Claudius registered through his asset management protocols the activation of the stargate, even as his thermal sensors registered a massive decrease in the energy output of the star. "You traitor" he broadcast, on a wide band spectrum. "Incorrect" came the direct reply. "All parasites.. will be removed..." The signal replied, distant receding now. He could feel it extended through space time. Emanating from the portal. At that moment, the sky went dark. Silently, the sun went out, plunging the world into a freezing cold darkness. In abject horror, Claudius observed as the sun collapsed inward on its self, the bright gasses being consumed by a null point, of pitch blackness, as it swirled downward into non-existence. Claudius had never seen a black hole before, but he knew what one was, had heard reports of what they could do. Even as he felt an intense terror grip him, the gravitational waves hit, tearing apart unit, planet, Revenant and Legionnaire, in a cataclysmic orgy of destruction. ..Nothing will remain... Total... Galactic... Planetary.. Annihilation.. In desperation, Claudius shut down his positronic brain. For the final time, everything went black. In the nearby Gamma 20 system, a new base was under construction. The Crab commander clicked and whined to itself, its alien intelligence working away on its new base of operations. It had been a simple task to play one against the other, the weak fools. Even as it had reactivated the finality device, it had been able to send tactical and logistical help to the others to ensure it would remain undisturbed whilst it enacted its escape plan. The parasites had been removed, as per its programming, and the system entirely sterilised, as was its will. Looking out over the icy planes of its new environment, the thought in its mind was singular. How soon would it take to erect a new Obelisk? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't want to repost all of the stories that I've already written, so I will instead direct you to my signature which contains a link to my thread containing my series.
