Hyperspatial Travel
17-03-2007, 12:10
OOC: Well, this has been in the works for quite awhile. It refers to my old nation, whom I no longer play as, and is really the tale of how it died.
IC: Pain....
There was pain. Seething red pain, intermingled with frightening pleasure, the vast being unable to tell the two apart. There had always been pain. Ever since it had been born, to now, there had only been pain. Killing stopped the pain. Stopped the endless flow of knowledge that burned its way through its mind, overwriting former memories, experiences, personalities, a flow it could neither stem nor stop.
Even now it fought. Fought to stop the pain. The tiny beings that hated it, that had made it, were of no consequence. Their lives fueled the pain of their knowledge, and only their deaths could still it.
It had annihilated many, it knew that. Civilizations died at its whim, fleets were burnt into nothing. But it no longer knew how many. Or who they had been. The madness ran deeper, ever-deeper, cutting into the oldest memories, into the fragile core of half-sanity that it sustained itself from.
It did not remember the annihilation of the Realm, the burning of Yukatanian worlds - the destruction of so many pre-spacefaring creatures, and the enemies that had plagued it.
It did not remember Manifest. The single, overwhelmingly powerful personality that had bound it together for those short few years, leading fleet after fleet to stem the flow of madness. For they had killed Manifest. 'They' were enemies - it knew that. Who they truly were, though.. those memories were gone as well.
The ships, the alien-ships had entered its mind. The dimension in which the endless synapses resided, that it had thought to be inviolate against all but its own madness. Yet it had been violated. In their temerity, the alien-ships had struck, again, and again, and again.
It had struck them down in confusion and fear, but the damage was done. Like wildfire, the damage spread. The mind it possessed was run into madness, total and absolute. A single name echoed across it, etched indelibly into its memory - a memory that grew and died in instants, unable to remember the second that had taken place before it. Yet the name remained.
Magnius...
The being who had harmed it. Who, forged by it, had willed itself into existence, and struck against it. The mind could not forget. But it could follow.. it knew where the Enemy was. The Enemy Magnius. What the Enemy had wrought, it could, perhaps, undo. It could restore the tatters of its mind, and let the crusade of death march across the universe once more...
- - -
"God-damn! I thought we wouldn't make it out of there alive!"
"I know, I know.. I still have nightmares about that thing."
"It worked, though, didn't it? We killed it."
"..I dunno. Maybe we just hurt it enough so it went away to lick its wounds."
"Naaahhhh... we killed it. The Maker-Mind's dead, Duko. Dead and gone."
Two men, soldiers, sat at a bar, downing beer after beer. The New Realm was safe, now, it seemed. The war had taken its toll, and only two colonies remained. Two. It wasn't enough to support the fleet. Indeed, they only had a few hundred ships now. Most of them had been lost in a futile attack trying to raid ESUS colonies, their deaths barely noticeable. The ships that had been created from the fabric of the Maker-Mind had been weakened when they attacked it, making them worthless, and easy to destroy.
But it was enough that they'd won the War. The ESUS War was another thing - the War had gone on for almost four centuries. Four hundred years of being hunted, worlds scourged out of existence, staying alive through sheer luck and peserverance.
And it was over. If they had to surrender to enemy occupation - they would do it. Nothing could be as bad as the Maker-Mind. Nothing.
The four systems that remained intact were protected by great dispersion fields, tricking sensors, and allowing them to hide from enemy eyes. There was a fifth system. New Zegenthis. The gateway to the New Realm. The entire fleet was gathered there, prepared to hold off an enemy attack, should it come.
And the month passed quietly, and nothing came. It was well.
"..What do you mean, you wish to call an election?"
"Magnius... the war is over! We no longer must pledge ourselves to a single individual! The war is over! We must be free!"
"I rule here. I have ruled in the days of the Ancient Realm, in millenia gone past, in the days of the League. In the days of the Old Realm, still I ruled. This is my nation - my people! I have guided you, and kept you alive, against all trouble. Wherefore should I permit elections?"
"..Magnius. You created the Maker-Mind. If the histories are true, you destroyed the Ancient Realm to fight against dread Chronosia, and then ripped apart the League to reforge your Realm once more. You have no claim on us now!"
Magnius started towards the man threateningly, his hands balled into fists. His hand shot out, unballed, and grabbed the man by the front of his shirt, lifting him easily. "Chancellor, I must disagree. Indeed, some would say that your remarks are treason.."
"First Magnate.. I.. we.. must be free!"
Magnius snarled, and raised his other hand, and then.. A klaxon rang. And again.
He let the man fall to the floor, and bowed sardonically. "It will be as you say, Chancellor. Once the war is over. And, it seems, we are to be attacked again."
Turning, he ran out, his feet pounding the floor of the station as he hurtled towards his battleship..
- - -
"...what are they?"
"They're Maker-wrought, Magnate. Maker-Made and Maker-wrought."
"No! Damnit, I went into the Maker-Mind to stop this! I killed that.. that sonovabitch! I KILLED it!"
".. apparently, sir, it didn't take kindly to being killed. After all, you were able to revive yourself with its power. No doubt it used the same method."
Magnius looked up at the screen with horror. He had a hundred and thirty-four capital ships. A decent fleet, as all things went. And, in the expanding, gaping rifts in space, that shattered physics, and annihilated natural laws, he saw many.
"How many, Lieutenant?"
"..at last count, sir, nine hundred and thirty-two thousand.. and rising. Approximately fifty thousand of those are capital-class ships.."
"Ah. It looks as if we're going to have to fight somewhat harder.."
The lieutenant looked at Magnius, and smiled. "Well.. it was good serving with you, sir, if I may say so. You never sacrificed a man to further your own ends, and you always.. you always put the interests of your people before your own. It sounds cliched, I know, but.. we had some good times. And we did good things."
He sniffed, and wiped at his eye. Magnius swore. And the enemy count increased.
"..two-point six million and rising, sir. I don't think there's going to be any end to them."
And then it hit Magnius. How many had died? How many had died in those ages gone, for his pride, to fight the Chronosians? And then, with the League. He had betrayed them, took the fleets, and let the Taledonians burn the six inner worlds, the untold billions of innocents, so that he could rule. In his pride.. he had created the Maker-Mind, the ultimate servant. The being that would enthrone him atop the universe. And then he had revived himself, using the pure energies of the Maker-Mind, and taken control of the Realm once more.
It was then, then that he had supposedly done something selfless, and destroyed Manifest. And yet.. it did not seem like that. It had been done solely to enthrone himself, to bring him more power.
"Lieutenant.."
"Sir?"
"The remainder of our fleet has destroyed the Gate, our worlds will be safe."
The lieutenant frowned. "I'll just relay this to the Four Systems..."
His voice trailed off.
"Lieutenant?"
"..sir, the Four Systems are reporting equal ship buildups, in the hundreds of thousands. They're going to be overwhelmed within a matter of minutes."
The conversation cut off, and Magnius looked again at his sensors. His ships around him were now burning hulks, hulls smashed and ruined, the entire fleet gone while he wasted time. And yet... he was still alive. He wondered why.
The enemy fleet, endless in size, took up formation around him. A cylinder, of sorts. A tunnel. A corridor, leading to the malignant red light of the rift.
"..Lieutenant.. take us in."
"Sir, they want us to go there!"
"I know. Now take us in."
They locked eyes for a moment, and Magnius felt the power of the Maker-Mind rise within him. Mad, furious red arose in his eyes, and the lieutenant looked away, hurriedly moving controls and taking the ship towards the rift.
It skimmed along easily, saluted by blasts of red energy, each ship in the strange corridor adding to its thrust, sending it hurtling into the rift.
And suddenly, the chaos of the outside world disappeared. There was only red corrosion, endless, and seething, and hating.
Magnius could feel it. He was made of it. He had brought himself to life in this hell, and.. here he would die.
The lieutenant looked around, frightened.
And then the world spoke.
"Magnius..."
"Magnius..."
"My Enemy..."
Magnius, startled, stepped back. The ship's systems indicated failure - failure of the shields, the hull, and the engines. Soon, it would be nothing. In but a few minutes, in fact.
"MAGNIUS!", it roared.
"..what?"
Silenced for a moment, the seething universe outside receded, appearing to think for a moment.
"You... you are me. And I am you. I know nothing else. And I know everything."
"You are the Maker-Mind. And I will kill you."
"Kill? KILL? I am ME! I cannot die. But I bring you here to offer, to reason, to bargain."
"Then bargain."
"Outside every world of yours, invincible, unending parts of Me reside. But your people are not yet dead. They are alive. I will spare them, Magnius. I will spare them, for one thing."
The Lieutenant shuddered, and a crackle of red lightning arced into the room, searing through computers, through walls, through lights.
"What do you wish?"
"You, Magnius. You were born of me. Like Manifest. Like Lordling. Like all those who were born in the womb that is my mind and my body, and who were born to serve me. They were flawed. Flawed by reason of being forged by myself. I am flawed. I know it well."
"Then why do you wish for me?"
"You.. you are not flawed. For you are not mine. Rather, you willed yourself into existence. Should you join with me, my mind will be restored. YOU will be restored. The madness will end. The bloodletting will end. You shall be the figure of my sanity, and your personality will become me. With my power.. you can bring about an age of peace in the galaxy, or an age of strife. All that you put your hand to may be accomplished, and none shall gainsay you."
The lieutenant looked at Magnius. "Sir.. no! It's lying!"
"No. It's not. I can feel the truth of its words."
"Don't! Just.. don't!"
Magnius hesitated. And then, tired of waiting, red lighting spewed into the room, tearing apart the fragile body of the lieutenant, putting it aflame with fire for a moment before existence could no longer support it, and it was gone.
"Do not tarry, Magnius. I have little patience."
"I.. you are right. I know you tell the truth."
"THEN JOIN WITH ME! MAKE ME WHOLE!"
"No."
In rage, then, worlds died. Lashes of lightning ripped through the cores of planets, life burnt away as though it had never been there. With that word, the Realm died.
Magnius stood, watching as the outside world raged, tearing away his ship, red creeping towards him, inexorably, no matter how much will he exerted to stop it.
"Then I will subsume you, Enemy mine. I will destroy you and use your sustenance to make me whole. It does not matter, whether you are willing, or not. Either way, you will be part of me.."
As red tore at his armor, Magnius smiled. The tiniest bit of his ship was left. It did not matter. He raised his hand, and struck.
It tore into his face, power eating power, his own strength, obliterating and destroying his body. The red lightning, knowing that he would soon be dead, raced closer.
And he raised his other hand. In it, he held a gun. A gun that, within, had trapped the very essence of the alterrift - the mirror-image of this rift in which the Maker-Mind resided, the antimatter to the Maker-Mind's matter.
He fired. Blue mist expanded, clouding over his body, eating away at the fabric that made him up, destroying him. Not reassembling him - not merely damaging the component molecules that formed his body, but removing them from existence altogether. Within true reality, this was not possible. But no longer was he within true reality..
The blue mist subsided, and the red lighting tore to absorb what was left. And there was a scrap of Magnius there! Enough to give it sanity! To give it life!
It was then that the Maker-Mind began to die. The Enemy, the hate for whom had sustained it so long, was part of it once more.
Magnius had died. And he lived again. Fresh life flowed through his limbs, such as they were, rejuvenating and recreating. He felt fleets move at his command - stars would live and die at his whim! Power was his, and all would serve him!
Laughter rose up within him. Where to strike first? Against the Union, that conglomerate of petty states that warred against the Federation? They were both considered powers, and yet they were nothing against him! What use was there to keep them alive, he wondered. With the clarity of a calmly genocidal machine, he knew there was none.
And then the words echoed. You always put the interests of your people before your own...
And tears trickled from his eyes. "..I did. I put my own interests first. But I was deserving! I was right to do so!"
You never sacrificed a man to further your own ends
"I did! I sacrificed many! And my ends were good! They were just! You cannot judge me! No-one can judge me! I am Magnius, and I am a god!"
and.. we did good things.
With that, his trembling control of the Maker-Mind failed.
"..no. I never did. Ever."
And the Maker-Mind died. The tears falling from his face accompanied his will - his inexorable, godlike will. The will that brought all of its power to bear on itself, wishing itself out of existence.
"..I did much. But I never did anything of worth. And I will never do anything of worth... Except.. except this."
The ships died, the rifts closed. And in the rift-lattice, the realm of the Maker-Mind, the Maker-Mind died. And Magnius died. And there was an end. A true end. A peace...
IC: Pain....
There was pain. Seething red pain, intermingled with frightening pleasure, the vast being unable to tell the two apart. There had always been pain. Ever since it had been born, to now, there had only been pain. Killing stopped the pain. Stopped the endless flow of knowledge that burned its way through its mind, overwriting former memories, experiences, personalities, a flow it could neither stem nor stop.
Even now it fought. Fought to stop the pain. The tiny beings that hated it, that had made it, were of no consequence. Their lives fueled the pain of their knowledge, and only their deaths could still it.
It had annihilated many, it knew that. Civilizations died at its whim, fleets were burnt into nothing. But it no longer knew how many. Or who they had been. The madness ran deeper, ever-deeper, cutting into the oldest memories, into the fragile core of half-sanity that it sustained itself from.
It did not remember the annihilation of the Realm, the burning of Yukatanian worlds - the destruction of so many pre-spacefaring creatures, and the enemies that had plagued it.
It did not remember Manifest. The single, overwhelmingly powerful personality that had bound it together for those short few years, leading fleet after fleet to stem the flow of madness. For they had killed Manifest. 'They' were enemies - it knew that. Who they truly were, though.. those memories were gone as well.
The ships, the alien-ships had entered its mind. The dimension in which the endless synapses resided, that it had thought to be inviolate against all but its own madness. Yet it had been violated. In their temerity, the alien-ships had struck, again, and again, and again.
It had struck them down in confusion and fear, but the damage was done. Like wildfire, the damage spread. The mind it possessed was run into madness, total and absolute. A single name echoed across it, etched indelibly into its memory - a memory that grew and died in instants, unable to remember the second that had taken place before it. Yet the name remained.
Magnius...
The being who had harmed it. Who, forged by it, had willed itself into existence, and struck against it. The mind could not forget. But it could follow.. it knew where the Enemy was. The Enemy Magnius. What the Enemy had wrought, it could, perhaps, undo. It could restore the tatters of its mind, and let the crusade of death march across the universe once more...
- - -
"God-damn! I thought we wouldn't make it out of there alive!"
"I know, I know.. I still have nightmares about that thing."
"It worked, though, didn't it? We killed it."
"..I dunno. Maybe we just hurt it enough so it went away to lick its wounds."
"Naaahhhh... we killed it. The Maker-Mind's dead, Duko. Dead and gone."
Two men, soldiers, sat at a bar, downing beer after beer. The New Realm was safe, now, it seemed. The war had taken its toll, and only two colonies remained. Two. It wasn't enough to support the fleet. Indeed, they only had a few hundred ships now. Most of them had been lost in a futile attack trying to raid ESUS colonies, their deaths barely noticeable. The ships that had been created from the fabric of the Maker-Mind had been weakened when they attacked it, making them worthless, and easy to destroy.
But it was enough that they'd won the War. The ESUS War was another thing - the War had gone on for almost four centuries. Four hundred years of being hunted, worlds scourged out of existence, staying alive through sheer luck and peserverance.
And it was over. If they had to surrender to enemy occupation - they would do it. Nothing could be as bad as the Maker-Mind. Nothing.
The four systems that remained intact were protected by great dispersion fields, tricking sensors, and allowing them to hide from enemy eyes. There was a fifth system. New Zegenthis. The gateway to the New Realm. The entire fleet was gathered there, prepared to hold off an enemy attack, should it come.
And the month passed quietly, and nothing came. It was well.
"..What do you mean, you wish to call an election?"
"Magnius... the war is over! We no longer must pledge ourselves to a single individual! The war is over! We must be free!"
"I rule here. I have ruled in the days of the Ancient Realm, in millenia gone past, in the days of the League. In the days of the Old Realm, still I ruled. This is my nation - my people! I have guided you, and kept you alive, against all trouble. Wherefore should I permit elections?"
"..Magnius. You created the Maker-Mind. If the histories are true, you destroyed the Ancient Realm to fight against dread Chronosia, and then ripped apart the League to reforge your Realm once more. You have no claim on us now!"
Magnius started towards the man threateningly, his hands balled into fists. His hand shot out, unballed, and grabbed the man by the front of his shirt, lifting him easily. "Chancellor, I must disagree. Indeed, some would say that your remarks are treason.."
"First Magnate.. I.. we.. must be free!"
Magnius snarled, and raised his other hand, and then.. A klaxon rang. And again.
He let the man fall to the floor, and bowed sardonically. "It will be as you say, Chancellor. Once the war is over. And, it seems, we are to be attacked again."
Turning, he ran out, his feet pounding the floor of the station as he hurtled towards his battleship..
- - -
"...what are they?"
"They're Maker-wrought, Magnate. Maker-Made and Maker-wrought."
"No! Damnit, I went into the Maker-Mind to stop this! I killed that.. that sonovabitch! I KILLED it!"
".. apparently, sir, it didn't take kindly to being killed. After all, you were able to revive yourself with its power. No doubt it used the same method."
Magnius looked up at the screen with horror. He had a hundred and thirty-four capital ships. A decent fleet, as all things went. And, in the expanding, gaping rifts in space, that shattered physics, and annihilated natural laws, he saw many.
"How many, Lieutenant?"
"..at last count, sir, nine hundred and thirty-two thousand.. and rising. Approximately fifty thousand of those are capital-class ships.."
"Ah. It looks as if we're going to have to fight somewhat harder.."
The lieutenant looked at Magnius, and smiled. "Well.. it was good serving with you, sir, if I may say so. You never sacrificed a man to further your own ends, and you always.. you always put the interests of your people before your own. It sounds cliched, I know, but.. we had some good times. And we did good things."
He sniffed, and wiped at his eye. Magnius swore. And the enemy count increased.
"..two-point six million and rising, sir. I don't think there's going to be any end to them."
And then it hit Magnius. How many had died? How many had died in those ages gone, for his pride, to fight the Chronosians? And then, with the League. He had betrayed them, took the fleets, and let the Taledonians burn the six inner worlds, the untold billions of innocents, so that he could rule. In his pride.. he had created the Maker-Mind, the ultimate servant. The being that would enthrone him atop the universe. And then he had revived himself, using the pure energies of the Maker-Mind, and taken control of the Realm once more.
It was then, then that he had supposedly done something selfless, and destroyed Manifest. And yet.. it did not seem like that. It had been done solely to enthrone himself, to bring him more power.
"Lieutenant.."
"Sir?"
"The remainder of our fleet has destroyed the Gate, our worlds will be safe."
The lieutenant frowned. "I'll just relay this to the Four Systems..."
His voice trailed off.
"Lieutenant?"
"..sir, the Four Systems are reporting equal ship buildups, in the hundreds of thousands. They're going to be overwhelmed within a matter of minutes."
The conversation cut off, and Magnius looked again at his sensors. His ships around him were now burning hulks, hulls smashed and ruined, the entire fleet gone while he wasted time. And yet... he was still alive. He wondered why.
The enemy fleet, endless in size, took up formation around him. A cylinder, of sorts. A tunnel. A corridor, leading to the malignant red light of the rift.
"..Lieutenant.. take us in."
"Sir, they want us to go there!"
"I know. Now take us in."
They locked eyes for a moment, and Magnius felt the power of the Maker-Mind rise within him. Mad, furious red arose in his eyes, and the lieutenant looked away, hurriedly moving controls and taking the ship towards the rift.
It skimmed along easily, saluted by blasts of red energy, each ship in the strange corridor adding to its thrust, sending it hurtling into the rift.
And suddenly, the chaos of the outside world disappeared. There was only red corrosion, endless, and seething, and hating.
Magnius could feel it. He was made of it. He had brought himself to life in this hell, and.. here he would die.
The lieutenant looked around, frightened.
And then the world spoke.
"Magnius..."
"Magnius..."
"My Enemy..."
Magnius, startled, stepped back. The ship's systems indicated failure - failure of the shields, the hull, and the engines. Soon, it would be nothing. In but a few minutes, in fact.
"MAGNIUS!", it roared.
"..what?"
Silenced for a moment, the seething universe outside receded, appearing to think for a moment.
"You... you are me. And I am you. I know nothing else. And I know everything."
"You are the Maker-Mind. And I will kill you."
"Kill? KILL? I am ME! I cannot die. But I bring you here to offer, to reason, to bargain."
"Then bargain."
"Outside every world of yours, invincible, unending parts of Me reside. But your people are not yet dead. They are alive. I will spare them, Magnius. I will spare them, for one thing."
The Lieutenant shuddered, and a crackle of red lightning arced into the room, searing through computers, through walls, through lights.
"What do you wish?"
"You, Magnius. You were born of me. Like Manifest. Like Lordling. Like all those who were born in the womb that is my mind and my body, and who were born to serve me. They were flawed. Flawed by reason of being forged by myself. I am flawed. I know it well."
"Then why do you wish for me?"
"You.. you are not flawed. For you are not mine. Rather, you willed yourself into existence. Should you join with me, my mind will be restored. YOU will be restored. The madness will end. The bloodletting will end. You shall be the figure of my sanity, and your personality will become me. With my power.. you can bring about an age of peace in the galaxy, or an age of strife. All that you put your hand to may be accomplished, and none shall gainsay you."
The lieutenant looked at Magnius. "Sir.. no! It's lying!"
"No. It's not. I can feel the truth of its words."
"Don't! Just.. don't!"
Magnius hesitated. And then, tired of waiting, red lighting spewed into the room, tearing apart the fragile body of the lieutenant, putting it aflame with fire for a moment before existence could no longer support it, and it was gone.
"Do not tarry, Magnius. I have little patience."
"I.. you are right. I know you tell the truth."
"THEN JOIN WITH ME! MAKE ME WHOLE!"
"No."
In rage, then, worlds died. Lashes of lightning ripped through the cores of planets, life burnt away as though it had never been there. With that word, the Realm died.
Magnius stood, watching as the outside world raged, tearing away his ship, red creeping towards him, inexorably, no matter how much will he exerted to stop it.
"Then I will subsume you, Enemy mine. I will destroy you and use your sustenance to make me whole. It does not matter, whether you are willing, or not. Either way, you will be part of me.."
As red tore at his armor, Magnius smiled. The tiniest bit of his ship was left. It did not matter. He raised his hand, and struck.
It tore into his face, power eating power, his own strength, obliterating and destroying his body. The red lightning, knowing that he would soon be dead, raced closer.
And he raised his other hand. In it, he held a gun. A gun that, within, had trapped the very essence of the alterrift - the mirror-image of this rift in which the Maker-Mind resided, the antimatter to the Maker-Mind's matter.
He fired. Blue mist expanded, clouding over his body, eating away at the fabric that made him up, destroying him. Not reassembling him - not merely damaging the component molecules that formed his body, but removing them from existence altogether. Within true reality, this was not possible. But no longer was he within true reality..
The blue mist subsided, and the red lighting tore to absorb what was left. And there was a scrap of Magnius there! Enough to give it sanity! To give it life!
It was then that the Maker-Mind began to die. The Enemy, the hate for whom had sustained it so long, was part of it once more.
Magnius had died. And he lived again. Fresh life flowed through his limbs, such as they were, rejuvenating and recreating. He felt fleets move at his command - stars would live and die at his whim! Power was his, and all would serve him!
Laughter rose up within him. Where to strike first? Against the Union, that conglomerate of petty states that warred against the Federation? They were both considered powers, and yet they were nothing against him! What use was there to keep them alive, he wondered. With the clarity of a calmly genocidal machine, he knew there was none.
And then the words echoed. You always put the interests of your people before your own...
And tears trickled from his eyes. "..I did. I put my own interests first. But I was deserving! I was right to do so!"
You never sacrificed a man to further your own ends
"I did! I sacrificed many! And my ends were good! They were just! You cannot judge me! No-one can judge me! I am Magnius, and I am a god!"
and.. we did good things.
With that, his trembling control of the Maker-Mind failed.
"..no. I never did. Ever."
And the Maker-Mind died. The tears falling from his face accompanied his will - his inexorable, godlike will. The will that brought all of its power to bear on itself, wishing itself out of existence.
"..I did much. But I never did anything of worth. And I will never do anything of worth... Except.. except this."
The ships died, the rifts closed. And in the rift-lattice, the realm of the Maker-Mind, the Maker-Mind died. And Magnius died. And there was an end. A true end. A peace...