The Futility Wars

by Magnus Thollander

  Kenny frowned and his feelings were overflowing he had to say something to get under his skin he felt like he was being treated like a child, like when he was in the presence of his father "You should teach her manners and not tell everyone secrets they should not have. I would have gone rougher on her if brother did not stop me, I would have killed for your stupidity and telling everyone about father and his plans." Kenny said with a smile on his lips, he did a light chuckle when Daniel turned around.

  "Kenny enough! Do not-" Marcus spoke before Daniel whipped a stun blast toward Kenny, Marcus had to step in and put up a psychic shield and the shot reflected into the ceiling, Daniel stared and Kenny stood there laughing all the same, Daniel holstered his pistol and took out something weird Marcus had never seen before, He pointed it at Kenny and something weird happened, He felt like something was wrong but could not place it, and then he heard the scream from Kenny.

  "AH! MY LEG!" Marcus started to drip sweat, and he slowed his senses down and honed them to perfection, anything that entered a few feet from him he would immediately detected he stood at full attention staring forward and after what felt like a hour he turned back to normal, Daniel was gone he was too focused on a projectile that did not come that he lost the sight of him, He looked at Kenny which were sitting upright against the floor with not a bruise on his leg.

  "What did he hit you with? Is it one of fathers new creations?" Marcus said, Kenny shook his head "No, It was an old one. I did not recognize its shape, but it's one of fathers old failed inventions, the psychic dart. Seems Daniel solved it somehow, He simply inserted the pain into my leg, my shield was never broken, he used the object to boost and project that a dart hit me, i saw that dart enter my leg, i guess you never saw it but only the aftermath right?" Kenny said.

  Marcus nodded "Yes, I only heard your screams and your hands covered the leg, I assumed it was one of fathers psychic killing guns that i know he has, the shape was not something i recognized and now that i think back, he must have modified it heavily. No wonder he is fathers favorite son with his talents."

  Kenny frowned at that last sentence but if he was a "ingenious" person like his father was then it might be why Daniel has so much auto my to do whatever he wanted in the milky way and beyond, The rest of the family were oafs with technology compared to Daniel if he could improve and complete something their father never could.

  Marcus checked his console, and he got the ping, Daniels ark just left the system he let out a sigh and shook his head "Seems we gonna have to do a lot more waiting and roaming about, We know where he went, but we should let him calm down for a week or two."

  Kenny nodded and pushed in coordinates, no point in waiting in this shit hole of a galaxy, they immediately set course for home.

  Zhang sat in the special troop transport built for this mission, they looked at the camera projections and data packets that flowed in instantly, the hive was separated and completely surrounded and the rest of the futility were wiped out from the system, their entry window was in four minutes when the solar awakening device excess radiation had washed away from the hives hull so it would not kill the fragile organic inside they were there to capture.

  Zhang had a well documented layout of the hive, but the corridors were ever-changing material that made it so no hive was alike, he knew the main "brain" were in middle of the ship and his mission was to kill the hatchery part where futility soldiers were being made, He would have to follow his own discretion on that part and if he had to blow a hole in the ship to kill them so be it, He hoped his advanced armor and shielding would hold against the horde of enemies he knew was going to come.

  He was more curious about the "temple" faction that looked incredibly competent and dangerous in their black armor that swirled with dark matter slowly leaking whenever they used their powers, he could see tiny flakes around the back of their shoulders he knew they had to let loose constantly in the armor, or they might go into shock with a overdose of energy, so they kept hovering there data pad in front of their face or simply making tiny ice sculptures which they then evaporated and remade.

  Zhang knew he would probably lose a face to face against their wonderful powers, but he was an agent as a trade, he would find the way if they were his target which they probably never would be, but nobody could keep themselves safe forever and even they would probably feel some fear of going into this mission. Everyone heard about Yua and her complaints about joining the mission, but that was a no-go and that had put Zhang on edge, he knew he might not make it out and a "spare" body was waiting a perfect clone.

  But he did not want to die and lose something important, he knew he would lose something or else he would not have forbidden his daughter to attend, he just hoped the technology was still a superiority toward the futility and the hive was not a death trap.

  The door opened and the last of the group entered, white armored people usually indicated scientists or doctors.

  "Listen up, These four people in white are here to try several technologies to attempt to contact the outside, they will be guarded by a team of combat drones and will not be your responsibility, the drones will breach first secure an entrance, and then you will go toward your assigned area and kill as much futility as you can while preserve ring any technology. Do not attempt to capture them alive, for they will kill self-destruct into a shower of plasma." said the commander, Zhang did not know who he was, but he seemed to know a lot more than himself.

  The door closed and the light switched to light blue, everyone did one last equipment and armor check and a timer started to appear on their HUD, ten seconds. Everyone stood up in a line and a massive shield generator hummed active creating defensive positions, so they could return fire to anything at the entrance if the drones failed, Everyone had practiced the boarding several times, and they had it down. Zhang had a front position with his two plasma pistols and a rifle was angled on his shoulder with the man behind him, The counter hit zero, and they waited for a few seconds and saw the drones still alive and shooting.

  The first soldier walked past Zhang slowly into the makeshift tunnel made out steel, it connects soon to the all familiar carapace that the futility housed themselves in, everyone started to slowly follow, and they entered what looked like a main corridor, the combat drones were firing at anything moving down the six ways, Zhang took one look and then radioed all the commanders "Plans changed, Six ways instead of Twelve. This is a unknown map layout. We gotta double up and then split up again, I suspect some lead to either dead ends or connect down the road, so we gotta take whatever mission or area we get. Everyone should know each groups objective, so I'm gonna tag the routes and then I'll take route one."

  Everyone was in agreement and staying around made no sense when they heard the futility shuffling and the combat drones firing down the hallways, Zhang motioned his shield-generator carrier, and he nodded, he activated it and led down the front, another squad joined in, and they now had full cover back and front. They slowly shuffled down the way. Zhang could hear the static of the radio once he was too far away from the other commanders.

  "We lost motion sensors and radio contact with all the other teams, we still are connected seems to be a 10-15 meter radius at most, I'm pinging off my second to last guy to reach Johnson in the rear." Gunther said, Zhang nodded and finally saw enemy contact but this time instead of the ugly brown this futility, these had either red carapaces or splashes of red. But they were dying all the same, Zhang was one of the front runners, and he already raked up at least 10 confirmed kills by simply walking down a few meters in the corridor.

  He knew the futility were more than just cannonfodder, but he had to continue with this mission, it was too important to fail.

  Christine frowned when Oleg had tagged up with her squad, and he was in an incredible happy mood killing futility in the open chamber they reached, Christine had tried to make heads or tails what this room was but it was not in the layout or in any of data packets. "Just keep killing
boys, Haha!" Oleg yelled in her ear constantly while she tried to focus on the mission and what area she was in, the enemy were peeking out of corridors or simply walking through what looked like flesh doors or simply dropping from the ceiling.

  She was in the only spot where they did not drop from the ceiling, and she were expending ammo and power cores at an insane rate if this kept up they were gonna be overrun. She was happy she had one of those "magicians" from the temple or whatever they were called, he had managed to secure this spot by sealing the roof above them by sensing there were no entrances above this area, and that had saved them from a lot of chaos and suicide attacks by the futility. They were dropping down and exploding plasma in a shower of gore which she knew was an insane tactic and a huge loss of life.

  Christine were thinking about how to get out of this situation when he felt something wrong and the "magician" spoke up "Something is wrong, They are not- Run! Everyone! Get into the corridor we came from!" the temple magician stood up and threw a massive shield around the area, and then started to run back where they came, everyone followed on instinct since they had no idea what to do, Christine turned around and heard a sloshing noise and her eyes widened inside her helmet "THEY ARE FLOODING THE ROOM! GO- GO!" They rushed faster than they ever done before and the exoskeletons were really kicking into high-gear. Oleg felt jealous when he saw the temple dude simply skipping like he was floating on a cloud and keeping a distance of over 10 feet ahead, he guessed he must have run in close to 80km/h, while Oleg had a brisk 60km/h.

  Christine was in the rear, and she saw the sloshing of the acid behind her simply washing down the hallway, she noticed that the floor was angled so the acid would go down the corridor easier, and she had at least something to salvage from this operational failure.

  Zhang were still walking down that endless corridor with no end in sight, he felt like he had walked in circle for a hour when he finally entered a room he was familiar with.

  "It's the shipyard, seems there are plenty of fighters growing. Heavy. Get some kills while the enemy is not here." Zhang spoke, The two heavies in the squads walked forward and tagged the ships and launched a few tiny micro missiles that shredded the ships, and that all familiar goo were dripping out them. Zhang nodded, and he felt it was weird there were not any futility soldiers here, but they had fought at least 400 in the tunnels alone but not all at once.

  They survey the area and took notice "Dead end, We could either use some explosives to break through the carapace to another hallway or room, or we simply slag this entire area and collapse the tunnel behind, what do you say?" Zhang looked around for anything he could use or move forward, but he was not familiar with the hive at all. If he blew a large enough hole in the side he might reach another room, or he might break the "brain" they were sent here to collect, he looked at the other squad commander.

  "Zhang, Let's blow this area up, no matter what the futility cannot launch any more attacks with their fighters from here, which means they have to spend time and resources to repair this area, which means everyone else gets an easier time completing the missions they were assigned, Let's destroy the area." Angel said.

  Zhang nodded, and they got to work doing as much damage while keeping the walls and the guts intact, after a few minutes it was clear the "birthing" mechanism that produced the ship were damaged and leaking constantly, Zhang took a lot of photos but you could see tiny carapaces inside the liquid forming into the ships, it would just take time to grow, he did not know how long it would take, but he spotted at least 100.000 tiny ships inside that goo, now they were all destroyed and poured onto the carpace floor and destroyed by leaving the safe environment they were hatched in.

  Christine finally reached a slope in the tunnel, and they felt they were out of danger for now, they still heard the tiny sloshing from behind them, so they kept moving forward, after what felt like 15 minutes they reached the entrance again, "Combat drone, guard this tunnel." Oleg spoke interrupting Christine which were about to say the same, one combat drone started to walk down the corridor and stood within radio distance.

  The white armor "scientists" or whatever they were trying several equipment and frequences, and she had to turn off her radio when she got the static and pings constantly, they stepped into the transport to do switch their gear and report what they saw. There was a human manager standing on ready when Christine and Oleg walked down to report what they saw and fought, the manager pointed them into the command center which they been never inside.

  They stepped inside and Christine felt like she was in another world, there were countless data on the screens and Christine even saw her own footage from the armor which were being uploaded, there were several human standing around looking at the footage and taking notes and planning strategies for the next entry teams.

  Christine looked further in the back, and she saw a few glass rooms, and she knew who the real commander was when she knocked on the glass and the door opened, Christine and Oleg stepped inside, and they saw Yua, sitting behind the desk fast-foward her armor footage.

  "Seems the futility are not as stupid as i thought, killing themselves in mass quantities and then letting the acid flood the important choke points, quite brilliant. No matter how strong armor or shield-generator you have you won't be able to walk through that for the hours required. The futility obvious able to swim in the liquid which is a boon for them. You have done good both of you, now we know another of their tricks which we solve by next entry, they won't abandon the ship or get any help from their fleets which are being shredded at entry." Yua said with arrogance in her voice which was usual.

  After thinking about it for a moment she stated "I will go in and check the hive myself, what i seen is nothing to be concerned about, you can either join me or rest with those who need to, there are plenty of squads that want to go in." Yua said, she walked out the door.

  Christine and Oleg looked at each other, Oleg did a shrug and Christine left as well, she did not want to enter the hive again so soon again, she needed to study what to do against that acid room. Yua simply walked into her own quarters which were incredibly hidden from everyone else, she looked at her gear setup, and she was happy with the preparation, she started to hook herself up to her black-violet armor which were custom-made and state of the art, she was forbidden to join in the missions, but she was going to do it anyway, she knew better since she was on the ground and her father did whatever he did, she knew he did not even pay attention to this mission at all, he just wanted the results not the in between stuff.

  Yua was ready to head out when her locking codes for the door did not work, she tried again and got an error, she frowned and looked around "WHO LOCKED ME OUT !?" she yelled, Nobody answered, and she pulled out her advanced weapon and shot the controls and started to slag open a hole, after a few blasts the area was smoldering, and she kicked a hole out, she put her in between the side and unhinged the locking mechanism, the door slid open, and she walked into the lift which were reactive.

  "I will climb through the elevator shaft and that will block all access for hours while i climb this massive ship, so you better re-active the lift, or we gonna have a problem." she said and the lift activated, she was sent to the command central, she obviously did not want to go here, but she stepped inside under the gaze of everyone, they all lowered their heads when she stared back, and she stood in middle of the room waiting, she heard click, and she had heard that before she looked at the wall and a shell started to reveal itself.

  "Dad..." she said softly, everyone froze in horror and quickly saluted the shell that walked out from the wall and approached the lift, she got the message and followed inside.

  "YOUR REBELLIOUS ATTITUDE IS NEVER HELPFUL, I TOLD YOU TO STAY AWAY AND FORGET ABOUT THIS, THIS IS NOT YOUR FIGHT. YOU SHOULD DO SOMETHING MORE PRODUCTIVE THAN THROWING YOUR LIFE AWAY IN A POINTLESS STRUGGLE, THE SOLDIERS WILL GET THE JOB DONE OR ELSE I WOULD NOT HAVE PICKED THEM." S-4XN-001 said, Yua could never really argue against her
father and his logic, he knew a lot more than she did about the "big picture" but she felt like she was like Daniel, caring about the little things.

  "I know mother will be sad if i lose my body, but you know as well as i that IF i die, i have already clones ready to restart myself, there will be an adjustment period and my psychic levels will obviously decrease. But is that not something i can get back in time?" Yua said while looking at his fathers cold mechanical face.

  "YOU THINK THERE ARE NO SIDE-EFFECTS BUT SOME LOSS IN MEMORIES OR FEELINGS? IF YOU EVER TOOK YOUR TRAINING SERIOUSLY AND REACHED MY POINT YOU KNOW THAT TRANSFERRING OF YOUR BODY IS ALWAYS BAD FOR YOU, YOU LOSE SOMETHING IN THE PROCESS ALWAYS. I HAVE DONE THE PROCESS MANY TIMES IN MY LIFETIME, AND I REALIZED IT QUICKLY WHEN I UNLOCKED MY PSYCHIC ABILITIES TO THE FULLEST IN MY CURRENT BODY, I- NO. I SPOKE TOO MUCH, YOU SHOULD OBEY ME ON THIS AND NOT RUSH TOWARD DANGER." S-4XN-001 said. Yua was too brazen and arrogant to take her father seriously, she figured he was just telling her the same old thing she had heard many times before she been in dangerous situations, she would do this with or without his permission.

  "Dad, I'm gonna go and do this, and I'm gonna come out alive. Mother are worried, i know. And you are worried as well, but i need to do this. I want to do this. Please if you truly care about me like you care about Daniel then you let my wings soar and unshackle the cage door." Yua said. S-4XN-001 stared at her, and did not say a thing. She waited for his response and the lift stopped, he stood there for a moment and after a second the lift closed and went for another direction.

  "YOU ARE RIGHT, I... I AM KEEPING MY CHILDREN IN A CAGE, BUT I KNOW HOW DANGEROUS THE GALAXY IS AND THE TREACHEROUS ATTITUDE OF ANY HUMAN AND ALIEN OUT THERE, CHAOS IS THE COMMON ELEMENT IN ALL CULTURES, ORTHA WANTED TO KILL EVERY HUMAN IN EXISTENCE AND STEAL OUT GALAXY WHEN THEY WERE ABOUT TO LOSE TO THE FUTILITY, ALTHOUGH THEY WERE A RACE OF HONOR, BUT THEY LOST THAT IN TIME. HONOR IS ONLY GOOD WHEN YOU ARE THE SUPERIOR RACE.BUT." the door stopped, and he walked out, "COME."