Armageddon

Discovery (Chpt. 2)

When Melissa had reached the maintenance tunnels the lights were out. But only in the tunnels. Melissa turned on her Helmet's flashlight. The railings on the side of her protected her from falling into the jagged machinery on the bottom. just a long narrow path with various lefts and rights. 

Melissa traveled down the path for a while before her foot got caught. She looked down and what she saw would make any person alone in darkness feel: fear. A larger man, in basic work clothes, sprawled out, blood soaked. Three sizable gaps in his torso. Sabotage Melissa thought to herself, removing the giant black knife from the leather strap on her hip. She intended to kill any empire freak with the knife of her father, the one they killed. But to Melissa's surprise, The sound of a solemn beep, the lights flashed on, revealing carnage. Just bodies of workers everywhere, many of which were mangled and dismembered. No trace of a heat signature. Not even the friction she had noticed before.

She called up Spirit.

"Guys, you might want to look at this." Her voice was stern. And everyone in Spirit knew when Melissa was as austere as this, something was wrong.

Soon enough Carter, Emily, Wyatt, and Eli all were in the tunnels, gawking at the slaughter. Eli, the biggest, tallest of the group looked at all the IDs of all the workers.

"All from this division," He stated, "What happened Melissa?"

Melissa looked frightened. "I-- I don't know. I just talked to one of them... 15 minutes ago."

"28 body count, in 15 minutes." Emily was the mechanic of the group. She dabbled in science and knew quite a bit about medication. She added, "All of which were silent. Silent enough to kill without another worker noticing. If it was loud we would get a transmission from one of them. And whatever killed them must have had night vision tech-"

Wyatt the scout of the team, cut her off. "No but if it was night vision, one of them would notice a green glowy techy thingy."

"Green glowy techy thingy?" Emily joked, "What are you five? Its an Objective Lens you cretin."

"Enough." Carters voice rose, "These were people. Don't be disrespectful. Emily. What kind of lacerations took place?"

"Um, well," She started, A bit confused, "Well dismemberment of course. But they weren't from guns or knives. Nothing I've seen before! Energy of some kind! Fascinating!"

"Please Emily." Carter said.

"But the first guy i noticed had holes. He wasn't dismembered." Melissa questioned.

"Energy has many ways to show power."

"How so?"

"Well," She continued, "It can be manipulated. Ever since the the discovery of Plasmatic Stimulators. But these readings show this energy to be thousands of years old! Way before Plasmatic Stimulators. Before the first colony ship was even built!"

Eli stood up quickly. "What was that?" He looked around, pointing his rifle in various directions.

"What?" Wyatt jeered, "Did a mouse frighten the Eli-phant?"

everyone looked at Wyatt.

"Sorry."

Melissa picked up a signal. It was the same friction from before.

"Around that corner!" She pointed down the corridor. Spirit took up their weapons and watched as the signature started to come close to the angle.

What rounded the corner was something odd, a humanoid in a dense black cloak, a hood that darkened what hid under it.

"Don't Fire!" Carter commanded. "Who are you?"

The Figure Spoke, with a creaky, metallic, hoarse voice that seemed to overlap itself. 

"I will end every last breath. I will tear apart flesh and vegetation. You will die along with these."

Carter negotiated. "You did this? Why?"

"They are inferior, as you are."

Carter answered. "Tell me who you are or we will open fire."

"It does not understand? It questions its predecessors?"

"Who are you. If you do not tell me, I will be forced to kill you."

Its voice rose, "I would not think so, quite the opposite. I've killed billions. You are nothing more. I will give you the chance to run. If you do not take this chance, you will fall. and so will this 'Solar system.'" 

"Spirit, aim. We do not want to fight, only to make peace. Now please, tell us who you are."

The creature had enough."You ask for my name?" It replied, angrily. "ALL WILL BURN IN FIRE AND PLASMA. ALL WILL CRUMBLE AND WASTE. ALL WILL ERODE. MY NAME IS RUIN, MY NAME IS HATE, MY NAME IS FEAR AND MY NAME IS RAGE." 

The air around them started to crackle and energy made from green, purple, and red began to orbit around the creature of unknown origin.

"OPEN FIRE!" All of Spirit unloaded each magazine at once. But every bullet that was fired was ineffective. The figure slowly lowered its hood, revealing one giant crimson visor. It was not human. Machinery.