The Fall of an Empire (invader zim fanfic)

Chapter 4: Aberration

Everyone was holding their breath after the laser seemigly made contact. Some were disappointed that they weren't able to learn about what this new planet was, while others, including Red, were glad it was erased from existence. Although Red didn't want to admit it, he didn't fully understand why he ordered to fire. In fact, the only reason why he did it was because of a gut feeling he had after finding out the surface was shifting. As strange as it might be to say that after tens of thousands of years of cybernetic augmentation being embedded into the Irkien race, this action was almost out of instinct. It was as if Red knew there was more on the line than what he was fully aware of.

Silence filled the control room before Red finally spoke.

"Status report..."

One of the navigators' antennas twitched in response before immediately searching through the control systems the state of the object of their target. It wasn't long before she began displaying a confused expression. She semmingly refreshed the data again and again, searching for a different result. Unfortunately, she has done it so many times that Red was growing impatient to hear the report.

"What's taking so long?" He stated. "Was the planet destroyed or not?"

"It's... uh..." she trailed off, trying to think of a response.

"Well!?" Red exclaimed.

"It's gone, my Tallest!" She responded, perturbed. "It vanished."

Red was puzzled by her response. If it was confirmed the object was destroyed, then why say vanished?

"What do you mean it vanished?" Red inquired.

The Navigator was anxious to speak but answered his question anyway.

"I-It disappeared before contact was made," she said. "T-The planet somehow 'jumped' s-seconds before impact, m-my Tallest."

Red's eyes widened after realizing what this meant, but didn't want to believe it. He wanted to be 100 percent certain that  what she said was true before verifying such an outlandish claim.

"That's impossible..." Red trailed off in disbelief. "Show me the footage!"

The Navigator jumped after hearing him yell before immediately displaying the footage on the giant screen before them. It showed The Massive charging up from another ship's perspective before firing at the planet in the distance. It was only a few seconds before the laser made contact until space-time began bending around the object, forming a bubble like shape. It wasn't long afterward that the object appeared to both redshift and shrink out of existence.

This video only confirms what the Irken stated before: the object that was supposed to be blown into pieces escaped their attack. Red couldn't believe what he was seeing. This new planet, if he can even call it that, they have found was full of surprises; most of which they were not hoping for. After fully realizing what this meant, Red couldn't help but experience a sudden influx of emotion, one of which his PAK couldn't restrain. For the first time in his life, he was afraid. It wasn't because it could potentially be a threat to the Armada or it might possess more abilities that have yet to be revealed, but because this thing was able to dodge The Massive's most powerful weapon like a baseball being thrown by a child. If something that size was able to dodge a laser by simply surpassing its speed with seconds to spare, then the empire has met a threat greater than itself.

Red stood in silence from seeing this, contemplating if they should search for the object or turn tail and go back home. He was feeling an increasing weight on his shoulders as he considered both options. The first option could lead them to finally destroying the thing, but there's a chance they could get blindsided since it's capable of FTL; the second option could get them reinforcements, but they'll also risk the possibility of it following them back home. Red was lost in his thoughts before someone spoke in a panicked voice.

"Sir!" One of the Navigators shouted. "We have a situation!"

"What is it?" He responded.

"A large burst of energy was just detected 6 light minutes away with a high-speed projectile following close behind!"

"What!? How long until impact!?"

"7 minutes and counting, my Tallest!"

"Ready battle stations and direct most of The Massive's energy into its shields!" Red commanded, preparing for combat. "Make sure to transmit this to the rest of the fleet, I have a feeling this won't be an easy fight."

Everyone present began to prepare for combat and fortify their defenses. The stakes were too high to be cocky, so everything was on high alert.

By the time everything was ready, the projectile that was on a collision course with The Massive was quickly approaching. It was blue shifted because of its relativistic speed and was slowly getting into view. Everyone was ready for impact until something unexpected happened.

Only 15 seconds before impact, the projectile suddenly self-destructed. Millions of super dense fragments began flying in multiple directions at once, carrying their initial momentum. Only then did said fragments impact the surrounding Armada like guided missles, annihilating more than half the fleet in one fell swoop. Ships that managed to survive the initial impact were either in critical condition or were too badly damaged to fight. The neighbooring ships managed to quickly save those affected, but evidently struggled themselves from taking high velocity shrapnel. Within just one attack, one of the most powerful fleets in the galaxy was reduced to near nothing.

Although this was unprecedented, Red was right about one thing: this will not be an easy fight.