Echo Effect Complete Edition

by Robert D. Armstrong

  “That would be you, at least, technologically, but do you possess what is necessary to succeed under such enormous pressure?” it asked as a light sleet began to fall. Michael stepped toward the creature. They were in an open area behind the fallen structure. The sleet began to contact Michael’s plasma blade, creating a hissing sound as steam funneled in front of his face.

  “False morality, conviction, and loyalty. You’re not much different from what we’re used to on Earth, are you?” Michael asked.

  The Omega tilted its head in confusion. “Oh, I’m far different.”

  “Are you? You’re here to prevent the suffering of your own kind. How is wiping out such a fragile civilization, such as humanity, noble? That’s what you’ve decided, it appears. The way I see it, that’s what mankind has done for centuries, raise the sword first and rationalize later.”

  “Rationalize? I explained this while you were taking a nap. Your species is a threat to the galaxy if you continue to evolve. Look at your home. A partially radiated, overpopulated stepping stone, you’ll soon swim from the shores to the stars, and I cannot allow that.” The Omega gestured its hand into the sky. “Why would I allow you any further?”

  “Because we risked our lives so you could have this thing, this artifact that was supposed to help your race, and before I did, I not only thought about myself, my people, but yours.”

  The Omega turned its head to the side and paused for a moment. “Is that right? Is this the example of conviction you speak of? Your self-sacrifice? You could easily be lying and have done this for your own agenda.”

  “I’m simply asking you to give us the chance, the same chance I gave your people without knowing anything about them. Believe what you want, but the truth is we wanted to help. I’ve had a small taste of confinement within my own mind. While maybe not slavery as your people know it, I was bound, forced to carry out the will of the corrupt,” Michael explained.

  “This is quite an interesting plea,” the Omega replied.

  “You don’t know where the road leads humanity. Our history, while dark and full of carnage, has had its moments of enlightenment.”

  Keith stepped forward. He gulped, glancing at Michael, and then at the Omega. He reached into his khaki pant pocket. “If I may, there’s a saying. It has to do with currency, a coin, a small chip of metal like this. If you flip a coin, it lands on one side or the other. A thousand flips will usually result in a near even split, simple probability.”

  “Amusing. Lessons in probability?”

  “There’s a chance we won’t venture out into the galaxy. Like the coin, it usually lands on one side or the other, but there is a chance it can land on its edge?” Keith posed.

  “Extreme odds,” the Omega said.

  “But not impossible. The key is sheer numbers to achieve this. We need time as a species to figure it all out, possibly thousands of years of making mistakes to finally land on our edge. Why not simply monitor our progress and come back once we start down this road of galactic conquest? It’s possible our species could become more docile over the generations,” Keith explained.

  The Omega glared at Michael. “More similarities to my masters. They would do or say anything to extend their lives. You’re an interesting concoction, human. I’ve watched your species in their worst moments. Only hours ago, I watched your kind trample over one another just to take one more breath when the end was already apparent. This instinctive will to survive manifests itself in words as well.”

  “Then we’ve made a terrible mistake inviting you here. We should have turned this device on and destroyed you,” Michael said, glancing at Keith.

  “Indeed, you should have, and you summoned me to such a desolate location. What few and pathetic human defenses you had before are nonexistent here. A more strategic approach would have been to work in collaboration with your military. You could have activated the artifact while they conducted a full assault against me. Now, you have nothing.”

  “You know what I think? I think you have a false sense of nobility that you’re concealing with duty. I think all those years of conquering civilizations, you learned to enjoy it subconsciously despite your moral stance against it. What choice did you have? You were a slave.” Michael began to circle the Omega.

  “Careful, primate. You speak of things your mind cannot fathom.” The Omega’s tentacles stiffened in a cross formation like a set of wings.

  “You didn’t say I was wrong.”

  “It’s irrelevant.” The Omega lunged at Michael, but he leaped twenty feet into the air, slashing in an X pattern with his blade, soaring over the Omega. Before he landed, his leg was lassoed, flinging him two hundred feet across the field toward the forest as he tumbled violently. He stood up, covered in sludge, only his green eyes and blade emerging from the thick coat of muck.

  The Omega glared at its tentacles, noticing three of the four had been severed as they flopped on the ground erratically. A rushing liquid sound emitted from the creature, extending the alien extremities back to normal length. “You have the speed and some of the technology of the masters, but you’re corrupted with a subclass intelligence, unable to see the unavoidable outcome. Even without my telekinesis, you have no chance.”

  Michael barreled low into the forest on all fours with primal ferocity. The Omega pursued him but stopped just at the forest’s edge. “There will be no refuge here, hunter.”

  Michael kept quiet, darting from tree to tree, deeper into the shadowy woods like an invisible panther.

  “Look, over there. Michael’s hand,” Keith whispered, picking up the severed arm.

  “Can we use it?” Vala said. Keith crawled to the artifact.

  “Only one way to find out.” Keith attempted to force Michael’s severed hand inside the indentation. “Ugh, the hand is pried open. I can’t close the fingers,” Keith whispered.

  “Let me help.” Vala rushed over.

  Michael retracted his plasma blade as he vanished into the woodland. He ducked low behind a large tree as the Omega waded through the thick brush after him. Michael touched the ground, detecting the location of each footstep with his seismic sensors as the creature approached.

  Michael had his back to the trunk as the Omega began to rip through trees with its tentacles. Mice, squirrels, and chipmunks hurried past Michael on the ground as if they were fleeing a forest fire, some brushing up against him in their frantic retreat. The Omega halted, retracting its tentacles.

  “These rodents run past you like a savior, as if you’re a wall of protection. Does it resonate with you that, if you’re unsuccessful, all this will cease to exist? Even these small creatures, as insignificant as they appear, are the product of millions of years of evolution, and they will be silenced for eternity if you make the wrong move.”

  Michael leaned his head against the trunk of the tree, staring into the clouds as they drifted low overhead. The sleet fell straight onto his face.

  “I would often ask this of species in their last moments when I was forced to carry out atrocities for my masters.”

  The Omega skewered through a fleeing squirrel with his tentacle, puncturing through its hip. The squirrel squealed as the Omega reeled it in close to its face. “Only seconds ago, this creature felt a sense of security that it would escape.” He flung the panicking rodent right in front of Michael.

  “You know, back there, you had a point. I’m not noble, not anymore. Over the years, I have grown to enjoy the struggle, the gasp for air as a civilization attempts to survive. I can’t say I’m proud of such a desire, but this gives me purpose. My people, they’ve grown feeble, comfortable since our revolution, now they’re less able to do what is necessary. They would have me allow your kind to live if you cooperated, flourish even, but they don’t know war like I do, like the old order for the masters. As horrible as they were, their strength had its advantages.”

  The sleet began to change to rain, intensifying to a downpour.

  “My people sent me here in
the event things go bad. They know I have the capacity, the experience, to annihilate a species. They do not. They’re enlightened and would rather not know of such things,” the Omega said.

  Michael stayed quiet as a surge of automated calming agents were injected into his bloodstream, allowing him to focus. The Omega’s tentacles stretched forward like two sets of antennas. They vibrated quickly, emitting a sound like a rattlesnake’s tail. They suddenly stopped, pointing in Michael’s direction.

  “Beneath my former master’s skeleton, I sense your beating heart, a primitive organ designed to fail. It betrays you now,” the Omega said, lowering its voice. There was silence for a few seconds, then the cracking sound of a whip erupted as a tentacle swiped toward the tree. Michael hit the deck as the razor-sharp limb looped around the trunk inches above his head.

  The tentacle sawed through the massive trunk. All at once, it ripped completely through as heaps of sawdust were ejected into the forest. The gigantic tree began to fall toward the Omega slowly. Michael jumped on top it, scaling thirty feet in less than a second, keeping his body concealed on the opposite side of the trunk. Michael rode the timbering giant down as it fell while the Omega lunged out of its path.

  Michael dove at the Omega, unleashing his plasma blade and slicing downward. The Omega sprang back, hurling its deadly tentacles at Michael like a flurry of bladed whips. Michael landed on one knee and immediately pounced toward the Omega, deflecting the lashes with his green blade as he strafed back and forth. “Arrrrrrrrrrgh!” he yelled.

  Michael’s arm moved at a blurring speed as his blade whizzed around his body, deflecting several impacts per second. Sparks seared into the distance from Michael’s blade, turning into small plumes of smoke in the rain.

  “Impressive speed,” the Omega said, surgically prying for any opening. One wrong move and Michael would be shredded to pieces.

  As Michael moved within a dozen feet of the Omega, it’s red eyes widened, and it turned its back, making a full spin as it retreated. It whipped around a wide, clawlike formation of tentacles while it withdrew.

  Michael ducked as the tether of tentacles continued to sling around. Like a forming cyclone, the Omega spun more violently, tearing through the woodlands.

  Michael was forced to slow his assault. The Omega’s movements became more random, creating an unpredictable situation as it sped up and slowed without warning. Giant branches and logs flew at Michael at near one hundred miles an hour as dirt and sawdust filled the air.

  Michael heard Vala’s voice calling out desperately.

  She screamed at Iris. “Wake up! Wake up!” Michael turned his attention toward her for a split second as a rotted log blasted him in the torso, knocking him back fifty feet.

  “Distracted, at this moment? You best present a challenge worthy of the fall of your civilization,” the Omega said.

  On impact, Michael’s body was hurled rapidly through the thickets, tumbling for another thirty feet while vines and brush twisted around his frame.

  Michael laid motionless on his back as his eyes faded to black. Vala called for him, but her voice was lost in the forest. As Michael faded from consciousness, he squeezed the fingers on his left hand but nothing happened.

  “Your attacks, while impressive in speed and ferocity, are hindered by an emotional attachment. You’re unable to rid your mind of the possibility of failure due to a biological connection to a mate. Your heart flutters at the sound of her voice,” the Omega said.

  The Omega’s footfalls stamped closer as Michael’s systems attempted to get him back in the fight.

  SYSTEM REBOOT REQUIRED

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  ECHO ORGANIC ELEMENT: SUSTAINED

  HEART RATE 33 BPM

  BRAIN FUNCTION: MILD CONCUSSION, DELTA WAVES 1.77HZ

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  OPERATING SYSTEM: FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE WITH COMBAT SYSTEMS

  WARNING – REBOOT IN PROCESS -- WARNING

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  THREAT DETECTED CLOSE PROXIMITY PREPARE FOR SURGE

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  Michael’s body jolted as he was automatically sprung upright with his plasma saber ignited. But as he planted himself, he noticed the Omega’s tentacles snaking around his body, freezing his lower body in place. Michael hacked at the Omega’s limbs as his body was slowly covered like an Octopus’ prey.

  “The beginning of the end. Imprisonment is such a horrible sentence, forced to witness your world fall apart while you can do nothing. You know, much of my body is similar to yours, the masters, as I was given the same treatment for longevity, to continue enslaving civilizations, but now, I feel something different. I crave the essence of nothingness. The silence. This form is tired, and I must admit your inability to destroy me is, in a small way, discouraging.”

  Michael slashed at the limbs as he was lifted from the ground. “Don’t you feel it, like a shadow hovering over your will to survive? Even if you somehow destroy me, you’ll be nothing but an outcast. You could save your brethren, and they will still look down on you because of your appearance.”

  “Submit!” The Omega began to batter Michael around the forest like a ball on a chain. Just as Michael would slice one limb off, another would snag one of his extremities and continue bashing him into trees and the ground.

  “Argh!” To soften the blows, Michael used his plasma blade as a shield, cutting through some of the obstacles before his skull smashed into them, but the pace was intensifying by the moment. The tentacles were slowly securing each of his limbs, pulling him in toward the Omega.

  Michael squirmed as the creature snaked around his plasma blade arm. The tentacle pulled the blade in toward Michael’s body, but he disengaged it just in time. As the extremities cocooned his entire body, Michael attempted to bite desperately, snagging one of the limbs and tearing straight through it with his fangs, but another took its place, slithering around him like a victorious python.

  “Ahahhhh! No!” Michael called out as it covered his mouth, muffling his voice and sealing him completely in a shell of tentacles. The extremities pulsed red as the Omega let out an electronic shrill.

  “There is no escape, warrior. The more you move, the more you will be constricted.” The Omega held Michael above his head, carrying him toward the barn like a trophy on display.

  “I have your champion,” the Omega boasted.

  “M-Michael?” Vala uttered.

  “Garza, do you remember what I told you and Lucas during our first interaction? I was very clear,” the Omega asked.

  “You always wanted that fucking artifact! Now take it and leave!” she shouted, holding Lucas’ corpse. She wiped her eyes full of anger and tears.

  “Yes, but remember I told you it was best you think of yourselves as newborn children, helpless to the world around you.” The Omega cradled Michael in front of him like a young child.

  “Good for you. You said it yourself, you’re thousands of years beyond us. Go have a fucking cookie! You won!” Garza yelled.

  “Do you hear that?” The Omega began to pull Michael apart slowly inside the cocoon. Groans of agony could be heard inside the alien’s prison as Michael struggled. The cocoon flexed and pulsed as his exoskeleton fought with every last ounce of cybernetic strength. The struggle forced the Omega to shift his weight to counter Michael’s desperate attempts to free himself.

  Vala fell face-first in anguish. She couldn’t even make a sound, as if the life was sucked right out of her.

  The Omega glared at the cocoon. “A fierce will to survive, this one.”

  “Torture? You said you were slaves, yet you torture captives? You didn’t learn much from your experiences, did you?” Garza asked.

  “I’ve learned that you remind me of the most tyrannical species the galaxy has ever known, which, unfortunately, has influenced me,” the Omega said.

  “Let `em go!”
Vala pleaded.

  “Perhaps my victory over this abomination isn’t my most glorious prize, but I achieved this without telekinesis, my most powerful attribute,” the Omega said.

  Garza cut her eyes away from the Omega, noticing Iris standing out in the open, smiling. “Mine too,” she said.

  The Omega snapped its head toward Iris.

  Vala screamed as Iris pointed to her headband. She closed her eyes and telekinetically pried the fingers of Michael’s severed hand apart, forcing the arm inside the artifact with the power of her mind.

  “Turn it, clockwise!” Keith yelled, observing the situation.

  Immediately, the tentacles loosened their grip around Michael. The Omega’s knees buckled slightly as it glanced back at Iris, then Michael. It seemed its breath was knocked out of it momentarily. Michael began to swing his weight violently inside, rocking back and forth until the imprisonment began to lose integrity, creating a sliver of opportunity.

  Michael’s arm knifed through a small hole, stabbing the Omega in the side of the neck with his blade. The plasma plunged completely through the creature, creating a hole the size of a fist. A dark blue, slimy fluid flooded out as the creature’s red eyes dimmed.

  The Omega ripped at Michael’s arm with its tentacles, pulling it down to avoid the deadly blade. It spun around wildly as Michael powered through the weakened extremities, knocking them aside.

  Vala dropped to her knees. “Michael!”

  “Etha-va-da-gad,” the Omega uttered in an unfamiliar dialect as its voice faded. Michael viciously stabbed the Omega several more times, burrowing massive holes through its torso as it collapsed. Michael leaped off the Omega before impact as its face smacked lifelessly against the ground. Its tentacles slowly retracted inside its body.

  Vala placed her hand over her mouth as gobs of midnight-blue body fluid spilled onto the ground. The Omega choked as it reached out with its elongated arm. Michael followed the trembling alien arm with his eyes as it reached for the artifact.

  “You want it?” Michael demanded.