- NASA Deep Space Tracking Lab
California
A fresh member member of NASA's new, high-tech Deep Space Tracking Network, Miles Kaye often spent his hours "working" in the observatory, which mostly meant playing the occasional "battle royale MMO" or "flight simulator game", on his dual monitor computer. He often, if not always, had his first desk monitor — which he played games on — linked to a switch underneath his desk, allowing him to easily and quickly turn it off if a superior walked by, while he kept the NASA remote-control system linked up with his own little space probe out in space on one side of his desk. Meanwhile, with his gaming computer hidden under the table linked to an otherwise nondescript black mechanical keyboard on the other side of his desk, Miles had the second monitor on at all times, giving him the live visual feed on the Hercules VII Satellite, a small research probe that he was assigned to.
This system that he had of jumping between playing games and manning the probe was to make the Senior Workers respect him for "working" productively, allowing him to keep his job, and his games. The Hercules, currently orbiting Jupiter, was on a routine and automated orbital burn with its sensors array extended, while he was busy pummeling zombies on his game.
The spacecraft suddenly sent out a ping, alerting Kaye about a notification that needed to be addressed. Kaye quickly exited the game and slid over to the second monitor on his wheeled office chair, typing in commands as the scanner booted up.
"If this is an alien, I am so getting a raise," he thought to himself, booting up the camera and sensor. The satellite reoriented itself towards the ping as its camera was pointed straight at the orange monster of a planet, its scanner furiously alerting Kaye about an unidentified anomaly right in front of them. The only problem was, he actually couldn't see the anomaly. Kaye typed in some more code, about to take a chomp from his cheeseburger, when he paused, mid bite.
There was a flash in front of the screen as the camera feed went static for a few moments. Holy shit. Holy shit.. He could hardly keep himself from repeating it in his head, standing up in awe as his burger fell back down into the paper bag. He didn't really care, for he was trying to figure out what the hell just landed on his satellite. "Did I just-"
"Fuck up?" A Senior Worker, Fred, who worked in the booth behind him, finished his sentence for him. He and Kaye were basically the only people who got here early, and were the last to leave when their shift was over. Thus, they were constantly at neck and neck, with Fred always snooping around trying to one-up Kaye's apparently good record. Lucky for the junior worker, Kaye had already shut off the game monitor well before Fred arrived, so this was probably another one of his attempts to steal the spotlight. "Sorry for the language, kid, I just had to finish what you were about to say." He stepped on over to Kaye's workstation, arms behind his back. "From the looks of it, it's the usual- Playing that Battle Royale shit, as usual. Tch. You got another bullshit excuse on not doing your work and-" He stopped, noticing what was on the sensors. "What exactly am I looking at, Kid?"
"Something just hit the Hercules and —" Kaye stopped, looking at his own screen in a mixture of horror and shock. The remote-control system screen had begun to glitch out, filled with visions from the news, internet, and online encyclopedias which flashed across the screen like a flipbook, whilst the camera flickered in and out of control. Something black passed over the screen for a moment before the camera feed eventually shut off, giving him a "FEED LOST - KIA" plastered across the screen. "The Hell?"
"Well, that's a discovery." Fred sarcastically said. "It's a game you haven't played yet. I'll be sure to let the boss know.."
"Wait, Frank, wait!" Kaye insisted as the senior researcher stepped out of the room. "Don't you get it? Aliens just hacked my computer you idiot! They're coming, and you're trying to get me fired for playing games And— and if you saw the feed, that was a space object, man! Space objects don't slow down! The freaking aliens hacked my computer!"
Frank turned around, sneering at his colleague. "Sure they did, and they're coming to kill us all. Don't try to make me laugh."
- The Moon
Unidentified Spaceship
▶THE TABLE'S FLIPPED, NOW WE GOT ALL THE COCONUTS, BIIATCH ///
II
▶WE CAME TO BLOW YOUR SYSTEEEM YOU KNOW WHAT IM SAYIN ///
II
▶I JUST DIED IN YOUR ARMS TONIGHT ///
"PLEX. HUMAN MUSIC FRIGHTENS ME. These are truly the sounds of humans torturing machines. PERHAPS this is why our Master sent us here."
CORE's arm morphed back into its blocky base form, dropping the satellite to the floor of the spacecraft. Wire-like tendrils from his arm that had previously been connected to the salvaged human probe drew back into his arm as he pointed his arm at the fallen object, morphing it into a cannon. Their journey had taken them through space at the speed of light, where they soon slowed down to half that speed upon entering the Sol system, a backwater system in the Milky Way galaxy. There, they'd captured a scout probe near the gas giant of Jupiter, assessed it of data, and were now using it to boost their own signal to assess the planet of Earth, their destination.
Human music, by far, had to be the most terrifying thing on this planet.
"Oh, brother." PLEX moved in beside his compatriot, eyeing the object on the floor before turning his gaze up to his brother. "Methinks you are overreacting. 7.6 Billion Humans live on this planet. This pales in comparison to Microbes. According to scans, It is estimated that the oceans of this planet contain about 2.4 × 1028 microorganisms of the SAR11 variation. Humans are only a tiny sliver in comparison."
"BUT they are DANGEROUS," CORE insisted to his brother. "THESE HUMANS torture machines and record it for THEIR pleasure"
"I disagree. It seems Greek to me." He paused. "Is that a h-h-h-human joke?"
"IT WAS NOT FUNNY. NOR IS THEIR MUSIC."
"Nor are you, brother."
"THEN, let's AGREE to DISAGREE. THIS petty argument is getting US NOWHERE." CORE mused, marching over to the control console alongside his brother. The screen in front of them became active after it beeped, transforming from mere simple pixels of a nondescript picture into a full display of the planet, its geological schematics, and, thanks to the use of the drone, its media. News outlets reported sightings of "superheroes", seemingly powerful humans gifted with powers beyond their comprehension. They just had to wonder — were these "powers" brought about by natural means like genetics, or unnatural means, such as cybernetics? Regardless of the answer, they knew that whatever called Earth home was packing a lot of power for their size.
"SUPERHEROES, SUPERHEROES, SUPERHEROES," CORE chimed on and on like a parrot. "DO YOU SEE, brother? From my scans of the probe and human media dating back 10,000 units, there are MORE to these humans than meets the eye. THEY ARE DANGEROUS. UNPREDICTABLE. CUNNING. BRUTAL. These HUMANS now have the power to ERASE ENTIRE CITIES with the push of a button, WAGE WAR FROM AFAR and destroy armies as if they were nothing, and more. WITH THE ADDITION OF THESE SUPERHEROES, their destructive capability increases HUNDREDFOLD. If THESE ORGANISMS were to reach Alcyoneus...—"
"Then they would a threat to its survival on the scale of the Synchronous themselves, brother," PLEX nodded in agreement. "Eliminating the threat to Alcyoneus is our most dire priority."
CORE leaned up from the command console slowly, turning to his brother as if there were a glimmer of hope in the situation. The whole conversation had taken place within seconds, but CORE already knew the odds were looking good their favor. "BUT, BROTHER, A STATEMENT OF REASSURANCE: YOU SEEM TO BE FORGETTING that WE have that destructive capability ourselves."
"Indeed, CORE," PLEX shaped his own arm into an arm-cannon, watching the planet become larger and larger on their screen. "If there are superheroes on this planet, then we shall hunt."
