Red was absolutely distraught by what he had witnessed. He didn't know what to do next or what order to give to his subordinates. This was a situation he never expected to find himself in. Nonetheless, he was soon able to snap himself out of it and regain his composure.
"What's the status of the fleet!?" He called out to one of the navigators.
One of them searched through the fleet's networks before answering Red the state of their navy.
"Over 50% of our ships have been annihilated with most of the remaining vessels in critical condition." He stated plainly. "Sir, I believe a retreat is necess-."
"We're not leaving until that thing is dead!" He interrupted. "Tell an undamaged ships in the flotilla to attack with everything they have."
"B-but sir, this isn't a-"
"That's an order!"
The Navigator gave a soft sigh before relaying the message to the rest of the ships.
In a moment's notice, the remaining fleet began pursuing the entity millions of kilometers away. As they began to mobilize, some stood behind. It wasn't part of Red's order for a small number to stay behind to defend The Massive, let alone remain so close to the ship.
"My tallest, we have another situation," one of the Navigators said with a concerned tone.
"What is it now?" Red questioned.
"A small number of fighters haven't responded." He answered. "I'm hailing them now to see what the problem is."
The Navigator hailed one of the nearby ships, but he could hear were screams of agony through the comm link. Before he could say anything, he heard something unusual. In the background were sounds of a metal bending and flesh contorting, two noises he never thought he would ever hear at once. As much as he wanted to sever communication, he couldn't help but listen. Yhe screams continued on and on, and the pitch and tone began to change. They went from sounding like an Irken in pain to something completely unrecognizable. He couldn't put into words this new sound he heard, for there was nothing like it. Somehow, in some way, hearing this changed him; It changed him in a way that not even he himself is fully aware of.
The Navigator soon cut communication with one of the nearby ships with a look of absolute dread on his face. He was at a loss for words and emotion. He didn't know what to do or how to respond. He just sat in silence.
"Well!?" Red exclaimed. "What's their status?"
The Navigator did not answer. He just sat there, not saying a single word. Seeing this concerned Red greatly because not only did it mean that Irken heard something so unnerving, so disturbing, it brought him to silence, but it brought him to a state of complete disociation. This brought Red a sense of fear he hadn't experienced since he was an elite.
"Can someone show me the current state of the remaining Fleet?" Red asked hesitantly.
One of the other workers went straight to it and pulled up footage of the nearby ships. The ones that we're supposedly undamaged were masses of crimson flesh and metal. The exposed organic material repeatedly moved and shifted the metal chunks that made up the fighter ship around like a puzzle, trying to find the correct combination of pieces to get the result it wants. Everyone watching sat in silence at the horrendous sight before them. How can such a thing exist? How can such a monster have this much control of itself, especially from such a great distance?
Red looked around the cockpit and noticed everyone sitting motionlessly. In an attempt to overshadow is ever growing fear of this predicament, he shouts at the Navigators around him.
"What on Irk do you think you're doing!?" Red shouted. "Fire everything you have at that thing and kill it!!'
Everyone jumped upon hearing their tallest yell before going right to work as ordered. They activated every gun and canon on the side facing the crismon mass. A massive barrage of plasma and lasers of many different kinds were unleashed against the creature nearby. As what should have been expected, the giant, lopsided flesh ball used the ship chunks to protect itself and prevented the massive from inflicting major any damage. As the rate of fire increased, the entity remained unchanged until something finally happened.
Soon, a large bubble of bent spacetime formed around it, causing any and all energy particles being fired towards it to be redirected and miss completely. It seemed like it knew what it was doing despite being in such a semi-vulnerable state. Eventually, when it finally found the appearance it desired, it instantaneously accelerated towards the Massive in the blink of an eye. The impact shook the entire ship and caused many pieces to go flying.
'No, no, no, no, no!' Red thought to himself as he witnessed this unfold.
"Someone pull up the footage of whatever deck it just struck!" He ordered.
After a solid minute of search through the Massive's camera systems, one of the workers eventually found a still working camera within one of the cafeterias. The place had already lost atmosphere, and any irken that was present upon impact was dead. That was until another thing happened had occurred. The red mass that was embedded into the floor began to extend tendril-like appendages from its body to the surrounding corpses. Upon contact, it quickly spread around the floating cadavers before infiltrating their bodies. It wasn't long afterward that every single body it made contact with suddenly sprung back to life. They moved the radically and appeared to be screaming before being fully converted and transformed from the inside out. Their bodies changed and contorted as they spat out all of their implants, especially the one they had since birth.
The sight was sickening, to say the least, but seeing what was happening and what rhis thing was doing, it wanted to do more than just consume them.
YOU ARE READING
The Fall of an Empire (invader zim fanfic)
Science FictionThe Irken Armada came across a threat they never imagined they'd ever see. At first, it was seen as an everyday object that was blown out of proportion, but they soon realized just what it was that they messed with and how much is at stake.
