The Futility Wars

by Magnus Thollander

  They walked down the dock and Yua saw no shipped docked, she waited next to her father and after a moment a transport docked, he walked inside. Yua entered the box shaped space craft and her eyes widened, "Father, this is...." S-4XN-001 nodded, "THIS IS MY LATEST UPGRADE TO THE DARK-MATTER ARMOR I MADE, AND THE WEAPONS TO Accompany IT, THERE WILL BE A NEED FOR COMBAT DATA ON IT, I THINK YOU CAN GET IT FOR ME." S-4XN-001 said, Yua walked up and scanned the armor that were in a shielded containment, she felt a presence when staring at the armor like it was haunted, She turned her back to her father, and she spoke "Liberty, Liberty is its name."

  The soldiers were waiting on orders in the lounge while watching combat data or simply doing mundane stuff like watching movies or chatting with others, every squad was gathered in the room which were massive, there was enough room for everyone since this ship was designed for prolonged living, although it was bit creepy there was a hull connection to the hive ship, but they had trust in the warrior that sent them here that there was no way they were going to get anything close to hurt while being inside here.

  The door opened and Yua entered in her new armor, which she painted completely Purple with gold stripes, "Listen up! Those that want to join me can, We will go through another entrance which after speaking to my father, things are the main birthing facility, we will destroy it, so they can no longer flood the acid, we know from drone data that the room Christine's squad where in is still flooded and the futility is guarding it closely. Which i guess is the only corridor connecting to the "brain"." she said.

  Everyone's ears peaked and quickly switched their data pads to combat data and videos and scanned the footage which appeared on the screen, A scientist spoke up "We have tried everything to restore any communication activity through the hive and i have to admit it's not possible at this moment, but there is a work around that we have managed to come up with. A few thousand micro transmitters every 10 feet to bounce the signal, It's a waste of resources but should keep connectivity at 100% unless the futility find and destroy them, we have already begun manufacturing it, and we have success, we still cannot get this data off the ship but inside you will not be hampered."

  "About #!#& time" Oleg said, He stood up and stared at Yua "I'm gonna go with you Yua, but there is one #!#& thing everyone here wants to say to you and make clear, we will not follow your orders. I been on many battlefields in my time and i know you are bad news, You cannot lead in battle that's our one #!#& demand in this op."

  Yua frowned at his language and attitude, but she nodded "Yes, I'm gonna do my thing, and i will not hamper any of you. I will be on the radio and i will go in last, i will follow my own senses to direct me."

  Everyone stood up and went down to their thing before reporting within 20 minutes, Yua was already to go, but she would go in last, that was one of the conditions that father had left for her and this time she would listen, she felt like she was immortal in the armor, and she probably was if the futility ever engaged her, but she knew if there were enough hits the shield would break eventually and the armor as well.

  The most powerful thing about the armor was it's slim but incredibly heavy plates, even she would have to struggle to wear it if the power generator ever died which were incredibly powerful. She did not know how her father managed to solve the issue with dark-matter contamination on the psychic user that wore the armor, but he had, and she did not even need to let loose extra particles the armor could store it around itself if there was an excess, and she had a black mist swirling around her with extra energy that she built up the hour she wore the armor.

  She noticed the young man in the black robe approach her, "Seems you got what you wanted, I would request to join but after seeing your new armor i know that my life is not guaranteed to survive in there just yet, but i wish you the best of luck and i will observe the data when you come out." Yua nodded at his little speech, and she would have called him out for being a coward, but she was incredibly happy at the moment that she could finally engage in battle with a enemy that could fight back.

  Yua looked at the transport and saw her father standing there alone, she just gave a slight nod and walked into the transport and sat down staring at her father which had the other soldiers spooked, they did not know what to do, but they slowly shuffled into the transport as well. "Don't worry, old man. I'll teach your daughter a few things, haha!" said Oleg. Everyone stared in horror at Olegs remark and putting a hand on that shells shoulder.

  The shell did not react and Oleg shook his shoulder and walked into the transport and sat down, Yua glanced at him and then closed her eyes soon the transport was filled and when she looked down at the docks her fathers shell was gone, but she knew he would be watching for as long as he could, inside the hive he would be blind.

  "I can't believe you let her go! You should have stopped her like always whenever she wanted to do something so stupid!" yelled Seyla while throwing several objects towards Matthias in his shell form, so the damage was not even something to worry about.

  "YOU ARE RIGHT. BUT THAT WE ARE RIGHT DOES NOT MEAN SHE COULD BE WRONG, SHE WANTED TO GO AND WOULD PROBABLY NEVER SPEAK TO ANY OF US AGAIN FOR A LIFETIME IF I DENIED HER, WE COULD BLAME THE COMMANDERS AND THEY WOULD KNOW WHO GAVE THEM THAT ORDER, I RATHER GIVE HER THE BEST CHANCE SHE HAS IN THERE THAN- TH-." S-4XN-001 stuttered his last sentence and fell to his knees.

  "Matthias! Is it?" Seyla said worried, she had expressed her worry, but she had not approached him while he fell, she knew his real body was not here and it was just a machine body. She was worried the attacks came a lot more often than usual.

  "IT'S THE PROBLEM I CANNOT SOLVE, MY HUMAN BODY CAN NO LONGER CONTAIN MY POWERS, IT IS KILLING ME BUT YOU KNOW THIS, I HAVE GONE TOO FAR AND DONE TOO MANY MISTAKES, I USED TO BELIEVE THERE WAS NOTHING CALLED THE SOUL OR SPIRITUALITY THAT IT WAS JUST A JOKE FROM CHARLATANS, BUT I NOW KNOW IT IS BOUND TO US, AND IT TRAVELS WITH ME TO A NEW BODY. I CANNOT LAST MORE THAN A DAY IN A HUMAN BODY, BUT I MUST HAVE A HUMAN BODY OR I WILL LOSE EVERYTHING I AM. MY DATABASES ARE TAKING DAMAGE IF I DO NOT CLONE MYSELF, THIS IS THE ULTIMATE JOKE THE UNIVERSE PLAYED ON ME. I'M STILL A SICK MAN TRAPPED IN A ROOM, IT WAS TRUTH THE FIRST PART OF MY LIFE AND NOW MY LAST." S-4XN-001 spoke with a heavy tone.

  "Matthias, There is still hope. You will find an answer eventually, you solved every other problem that you had, and they all had something in common, time. Time will heal all wounds they used to say in the old days." She said while looking into his eyes.

  Matthias nodded and his eyes opened in his fresh body which was painful as always, like something gnawing inside you like a thousand fire ants, he knew it was just that the body has never really "worked" before and started the process of living fully like a human usually does, he would leave his body sleeping while his warrior senses worked his massive galaxy spanning empire, but he could no longer neglect this body like he used to, he had to try to solve the issue that's been cropping up, and will probably appear in every human with psychic powers to some degree.

  Humanity was in a deadly spiral and with his knowledge he knew someday everyone would reach the point he was at now, he had just jumped the hoops by a few hundred thousand years give or take, there was too many similarities with humans and aliens to discount it as a weird theory, he knew the Ortha would probably die out before humans went considering their head start and that the only race that were truly immortal in this universe were probably the Cyr since they had no way to learn how to operate psychic gifts, they could probably create a perfect clone of a human and plant their consciousness into that body like he did everyday.

  But that would mean they would lose everything they are, and that might be unacceptable to them considering their morality and ethics, they were the perfect people in his employ unlike the humans he was constantly bothered with the most of his life, They accepted his orders as gospel, and they worked to solve any problem by themselves, they would not go pester him whenever a problem arose unless it was urgent which it was never. He had accepted
them with open arms when he first learned of their existence.

  Machines were not greedy or stupid, they were intelligent and pragmatic they believed in him as their leader, but they did so because they knew they were going to live horribly and probably die eventually from the organic lifeforms that feared them, he was the only place they could go and fulfill their programming which had been in them since they got sentient by that long forgotten race that created them, Work, And that was something he could respect considering the laziness of the universe as a whole.

  The troop transport shook which was unusual considering her fathers design, Yua looked at the ramp lowering and it was directly connecting to the hive without the massive tunnel this was one of the plans to let the futility not get enough time to respond to the different invasion, the massive hunter killer drones were already active and firing wildly into the massive horde of enemies that were present, There were a lot more here than usual, and they were probably hitting a sleeping quarter or mess hall which she did not know if they had.

  Yua and the rest of the soldiers waited until the light turned green but that did not stop them from firing at any futility in the open engaging the drones, two massive shield-generators were in front of the transport blocking any shot with its massive power generator that would not run out anytime soon, the soldiers were lining up shooting and the kills were in the hundreds within the first minute of the engagement, the massive drones were shredding at least 10 enemies per salvo, and they had a lot of salvos.

  The problem was they were on auto-pilot since for some reason the futility had mastered the ability to block any connection reaching the outside while the "ship" was active, and that was the point of this mission to capture it active and learn it's secret from its squishy databanks which looked like organs.

  After a few moments the drone stopped firing and started to spread out into the room which were tiny by the futility standards and Yua was the first to jump out, she surveyed the room and looked at the entrances and exists. She tried to get a feel of where to go and where he intuition told her to go by there was nothing except the sound of the walls breathing and the scurrying echoing.

  She walked down a random corridor which seemed to take her further down into the hive, and she heard the men behind her yell out commands and started to separate into groups, The noise was unbearable for her when she walked down the corridor the skittering were echoing and the breathing was getting louder and louder.

  After what felt like a hour she walked into a chamber that was completely empty of life and resembling a spaceship for once, there were gadgets made out of metal stacked on racks of the trademark carapace of the futility and her armor recorded everything in this room. She turned her head around and her eyes widened.

  It was not a Futility alien but another life form, it looked like a eight armed human with massive muscles but covered it's head and chest with a carapace, she tried to reach the alien with her psychic powers, but she felt nothing, the alien started to rush toward her in a speed that should not be possible with his body mass.

  The alien yelled in guttural voice which was rare for any futility to even make a noise.

  Yua quickly pulled her rifle up and fired twice toward the head section of the alien and it hit cleanly blowing its head off and spraying the liquid the futility were made out of, she heard the sizzling of the acid hitting the floor, and she felt something stir in the hive further. Her senses activated completly, and she jumped up into the air, suddenly the floor vanished and turned into a massive acid pit.

  She lept at impossible angles and quickly hung above the floor attached to one metallic section still left in the room, she did not want to hold onto the flesh like walls if she had to, she immediately sent out a rescue signal when she saw the futility floating in the acid started to launch their attacks against her.

  "Help! It's another futility trap, attach cables the floor is collapse able! Need support!" she yelled into her radio and started to return fire, she pulled out one of her grenades and activated it on a timer and threw it down, she was taking several shots to her shield and if she had her old armor she might just have to move from this position before it failed.

  Her fathers the latest creation proved that she had nothing to worry about for the moment but the power were draining fast, she would have another minute or two before the shield failed, and she would have to swing toward the entrance she came from which were incredibly far away. She was sniping the futility swimming in the acid or simply standing on the top of the lake flinging their acid eggs toward her which impacted her shield gently but sprayed a gore of acid on her.

  She guessed the pool itself was their ammunition supply considering their endless numbers of eggs flinging toward her. "Yua, we are in the corridor behind you, but there is a problem. The walls... the walls are growing tumors blocking the way, we are having to destroy them, and we are at least 15 minutes away, if you can't hold then good luck!"

  She immediately activated her powers to the maximum and pulled out another hook, and she levitated it toward the entrance and hooked it up, she felt the armors core draining faster and after a pop she heard the sizzling on her armor itself, she put her feet on the metallic floor and pushed her away, she heard the sizzling of acid behind her and the metal wall started to drop down into the pit itself.

  She landed in the corridor, but she were as stranded as ever with the tumors blocking her rear, she put out her rifle and fired constantly tearing a chunk of flesh off with every shot, and she were taking massive damage on her armor with integrity going lower and lower, she finally scooped out a path, and she stepped inside the flesh and threw several grenades behind her hearing a rain of acid from the impact and detonation of the grenades.

  She rushed down the tumor filled hallway which were not growing fast enough all the way, but it was more directed toward the entrance than the entire corridor itself, she pushed and pushed until she heard the plasma shots of her teamates, and she regrouped immediately. They saw the damage on her armor, and she walked in between them back to the ship, she had to report what she had learned immediately to her father.

  Surprisingly the ship was being taken inch by the soldiers, but she were the only one that encountered a trap which were odd in itself, but she walked into the troop transport and a heavy spray of liquid doused her armor putting out any external bacteria and acid off her completely before the light turned green, she walked into the back room which were incredibly guarded, she uploaded the data of the armor immediately as soon as she got contact with the outside world.

  She put the codes to contact her father to speak about the alien she saw, "Father, You saw the new type of futility, it was unlike anything we ever seen before, and you have not even witnessed it before with your drone strikes, this felt wrong, like they knew i was coming."

  "YUA, THIS IS MY ONLY COMMAND AND YOU WILL IMMEDIATELY DO AS I COMMAND THIS ONCE, TAKE ONE OF THE SMALL SHIPS AND RETURN TO THE STATION, I WILL NOT TAKE A Now AND I WILL SEND ORDERS TO THE DRONES ON THE SHIP TO PACIFY YOU IF THERE IS A NEED. GO NOW." S-4XN-001 said.

  Yua was about to protest when she looked behind her and saw several drones ready to stun her, she wanted to go back into the fight after changing power generator, but she knew it was pointless to argue now. She let out a sigh and walked into one of the smaller two seater fighters attached to the hull and set course for the ship she entered the system in.

  S-4XN-001 looked over the data immediately, and he could not believe his eyes and ears at the footage, this was wrong... something was wrong and it made no sense. He had never seen the futility do anything like hacking or even coming close to the milky way galaxy but the truth was there, the alien spoke in perfect English but his sentences were overlapping over 500 sentences at once, it should not make any sense to him or anyone at all.

  But he knew the futility was the true threat to the universe and milky way itself, those 500 sentences... were names of him, his family and several high-ranking Vanguard members a
several Aliens he had once interacted with, he immediately hit the connection. Were they active in the milky way galaxy or had he been compromised without his knowledge? Did any of the alien races sell him out?, but why would they or even have the means to collect this data.

  The futility were too complex to figure out and when he thought he had the answers they threw another curb ball, the hive was more important than anything else, and he immediately began drafting Vanguard kill-squads to join the expedition this had to be a success no matter how many humans would die.

  S-4XN-001 knew he had to find these individuals immediately to either protect or help solve this mystery, and he went for the few names he could contact immediately which were in the milky way galaxy.

  Four days later.

  Ricardo woke up from his stupor when he heard a massive alarm churning out in his ear, he immediately rose to his fleet and rushed into his armor which were always in his quarters and within distance, he got inside and ran down the corridor spotting several commanders doing the same.

  He entered the main command central, and he was one of the first, he froze at the door at the man standing in middle of the room, but he slowly shuffled to the side of his other commander standing at attention at the man who started it all.

  After a few minutes Ricardo felt only shame at the slow filling in off soldiers, seems he had been sloppy with the drills and finally a whole five minutes went before everyone was gathered, "I NEED THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE WITH THESE NAMES ON THE SCREEN, IF YOU ARE NAMED AS SUCH STAY HERE. REST LEAVE." S-4XN-001 said.

  Ricardo and rest of his commanders looked at the screen and people were slowly shuffling out of the room, a voice was heard "One of these names, Liam Silvia, I know him. He's infiltrating the empire currently, and would need to be contacted to break off his mission."