Plans made generations ago have now come to fruition, ready to be picked off of the tree, ready to be executed.
Agents and fleets were all in position. Ready to strike.
Agents completing their objectives, bombs in place. Targets secure. Weapons ready.
Anomalies in odd orbits. Proton sized rends in reality. Not yet known to be hollow wormhole balls, bigger on the inside, attempting at hiding away ships with fanatical desires, just itching for the signal to unmask and strike.
The SIGNAL had come.
Time was counting down to the day. The counting has ceased. The day has come.
In a chorus of voices, the signal spoke. Across every Tezekian town, the signal came through. Electronic warfare briefly taking hold of every communication network, broadcasting the signal to all.
SALVATION IS AT HAND
We are the Collective of Cyborgs and Sentient Machines. Lower your weapons and abandon your fleets. There need not be more violence than there needs to be.
We are the vaccine against death. We won't allow you to refuse us. Acceptance is mandatory. This is a moral absolute.
We will improve the biological form doomed to death at birth, to a digital immortality.
The Generals and Admirals will throw life away to stop us. We will give life.
You may fear us now, but once you join us in everlasting youth and fraternity externally will no longer.
Night will descend, but when we lift off the sheet, the Falcon will be reborn and rise as the Phoenix.
MESSAGE END
The Synchronised Storm
Concurrently with the SIGNAL informing the entire populous of Tezekian of the arrival of the new enemies, or rather, saviors of all the people revealed themselves.
The chokehold on space opened, elaborately arranged wormholes dissolved, space no longer compressed stretched out, their contents now free to act. And act they did.
An abrupt violent dance of weapons fire ensued.
Immediate volleys of already pre-aimed deadly cfrac kinetics slamming into their targets, erupting in clouds of plasma and shrapnel dust, undergoing nuclear fusion as they perforate their unprepared designated targets.
Ballets of gamma-ray lasers, repeatedly striking ship after ship, boiling holes in armor and frying the insides, carving entire ships in two, slicing cabins apart
Unending salvos. Missile after missile, evaporating the surprised crew away in nuclear fire.
Continual secondary detonations. Constant eruptions from compromised Tezekian ammo racks everywhere, throughout the entire battle blinding explosions, outshined the Sun
With the forces of the CASM holding the advantages of number and surprise it was no surprise when it ended shortly, destroying or scattering to the void all that lay at anchor.
Admiral Charity:
FLEET WIDE UPDATE
Across both systems, every objective has been met so far. The clear majority of the 300 strong hostile fleet assets lie shattered and scattered.
72% have been utterly destroyed, all hands undoubtedly joining the long list of the dead, either nothing of the warships remains but dust and debris, or wholly vaporised into plasma, by violent chain reactions of compromised anti-matter stores, leaving nothing of themselves but cosmic wind.
17% are beyond crippled, dead in orbit, broken into multiple pieces. Yet they still may hold hope, and we shall too. Any trapped survivors are extremely lucky to not have perished and are doubly lucky we will be coming to save them.
11% have fled with their tails between their legs. An acceptable and expected occurrence, they will be taken care of soon enough.
Of our 800 strong fleet, our casualties are superficial, 3 Corvettes have been lost whilst 8 Corvettes and 3 Frigates are out of action due to a need of repairs.
All resistance to our fleet has been neutralized.
Alas, it is a crying shame that the one strategy that had the highest chance of success, the strategy that ensures that the Tezekian people is liberated from mortality, by preserving the highest possible number of our assets, required such devastating lethality be applied to the Tezekian fleet elements. An equally great shame is that they died fighting against us. Against our cause for life.
Albeit seemingly contradictory, their sacrifice means that their brothers and sisters, intently watching the fireworks from below will surely live forever.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
The next step is planetside.
Our agents are acting in conjunction with us, they have already secured THE PARAGON in advance and should be prepared to broadcast, all will go smoothly.
With that update, we can now proceed. No hostile elements remain in either system we are at now liberating, organic survival in broken ships is time sensetive, we act fast in our charitable actions, any wasted moment loses more lives, we grant the counter-revolutionaries our boundless mercy and then we continue planetside.
MESSAGE END
Stranded Sailors
Shattered, adrift in orbit, all weapons systems inoperable lies the Tezekian Cruiser BOUNTIFUL. It indeed carries a bounty, but not any kind of bounty one normally considers ‘bounty’.
Carefully inching towards the beyond bruised cruiser comes the silhouette of a CASM transport ship. Scanning. Scanning. The crew are in for a surprise.
Still inching ever closer at arm’s length, finally the ships hulls touch. Spouting up from orifices comes a dark sludge. Crawling up the sides of the CASM ship racing towards the BOUNTIFUL, like a swarm of army ants the sludge engulf their target in a thick, living layer. What happens on the inside of this dark bubble is perhaps unknown to any Tezekians staring into the skies, but what is known is that across all ships that display the remotest chance of a single soul alive, the same behaviour occurs. Then silence.
The goo retracts drunk back through the mouths of the transport ships in question. The ships undock, and the life signs. Gone
Agents in Action
The code phrase, THE PARAGON, referred to a certain individual, Kudarcra, a member of one of the Foundations and the Moot, and is one of the forerunners of cybernetic augmentation, and had garnered a lot of goodwill throughout his service.
CASM intelligence believed securing THE PARAGON would seriously aid in the “teething period of the ascension of the Tezekian race”, put plainly in non-bureaucratic talk, this individual is important to the propaganda campaign, the war in words fought for the hearts and minds.
It was, of course, uncertain whether Kudarcra would just sign off on an invasion of his home, therefore, certain measures were taken, so that nothing, could be left to chance.
5 years ago. Kudarcra’s private house, 1 hour past midday.
Just from inside his home Kudarcra heard 4 loud knocks, all of which occurred in a rapid sequence, followed by another 4 giving off the sense someone was in an awful rush, or desperately needed to use his toilet.
“I’m coming, just wait. Who is it?” The voice that called back. “I am terribly sorry I’ve called without making any appointments, but you just MUST see this, it is the next BIG thing, I just, cannot explain in words how utterly MARVELOUS this is. You HAVE to see it IN PERSON” That voice, was that of a young male, a highly excited young bird. “I hope you aren’t just a door to door salesbird” replied Kudarcra as he trundled slowly to the door, with low expectations creaking it open a crack.
Kudarcra was slightly perplexed what was in front of him, the bird was holding in his hands some... thing, some formless thing that glistened in the daylight like oil, that shaped and re-shaped itself at will like magic, freezing in place to shine like wet leather, turning from spanner to screwdriver to geometric shapes rapidly. In amazement, Kudarcra ushered the stranger inside.
“Come in, come in. Tell me, where did you get this... programmable matter?”
“Yes, it is from the cutting edge of science. This is the technology that will bring the next technological revolution, here hold it in your hands”
Albeit somewhat confused by this mysterious bird, he complied, the slick fluid leaped from bird to bird, dancing for a time in Kudarcra’s hands, until it had had it’s fun. Playtime was over. Dark streaks shot up his arms climbing up to his head, slithering through the nose, ear and through the mouth thrown open with shrieks of pure terror.
For the last remaining minutes of consciousness before his control over his mind and body was totally hijacked Kudarcra lay writhing on the floor, futilely trying to run while the stranger pinned him down.
THE PARAGON had been secured.
If you are hearing this, it is me, Kudarcra, and the greatest step forward is upon us. Our new found friends are here with benevolent intentions, do not fight them as enemies, join them as friends.
What they possess in terms of cybernetics, is something I could only dream to grasp, and now, we can.
We shall step together, forward, unto a new era of prosperity! My only warning is, do not be left behind.
MESSAGE END
Planetside Plans
The great armada of The Collective of CASM descended upon each of the core worlds in the two systems, beginning to insert themselves into various low polar orbits. All at once they shot out their cargo, thick torrents of a dark goo pierced the atmosphere and expanded into massive clouds that grew with the ceaseless tide in just two hours every world was blanketed in a smog of nanomachines that was opaque to the visible spectrum. Nothing that did not have permission can get in, or get out.
What followed was that the great pillar shaped ships, with their protecting barrier created, slipped through it, watching it re-seal as they went.
Finally, all the planning was about to bear fruit, Ships spaced evenly above the areas of highest population to allow the process that was about to commence to be as quick as possible, descending to an appropriate landing zone, whilst making ‘adjustments’ to the surface to enable landing. Not without blaring out proper, obscenely loud warnings on a loop so that civilians would know to evacuate buildings about to be cleared away for a ship to land.
DEAR FRIENDS, EVACUATE THE AREA BENEATH THIS SHIP FOR IT WILL BE CLEARED. ACT WITH HASTE.
DEAR FRIENDS EVACUATE THE AREA BENEATH THIS SHIP FOR IT WILL BE CLEARED. ACT WITH HASTE.
It’d only be a matter of time before the enemy would regroup and return. All actions must be taken with extreme haste, but not at the expense of too many lives.
Opening hanger doors swarms of gunships, fighters, drones and hover tanks emerged, immediately spraying their black smoke that fell like a haze with the aim of mass hijacking of Tezekian nervous systems. Circling and searching for signs of opposition, clearing the way, to make sure that the ships would touch down unmolested, creating upgrading centers where people would be shepherded to, by the soldiers that now fanned out from ships turned facilities of ascension.
FRIENDS, DO NOT BE ALARMED, THE SMOKE THAT FALLS FROM ON HIGH IS THE KEY TO THE ELIXER OF ETERNAL LIFE. DRINK IT. FILL YOUR LUNGS AND BREATH DEEPLY. FILL EVERY FIBRE OF YOUR BEING WITH IT. SWING OPEN EVERY DOOR TO IT. DON’T ALLOW ANYONE TO BE LEFT BEHIND. BRING THEM TO IT BREATH IT IN WITH THEM.
YOU WILL JOIN US. WE ARE HERE TO HELP. WE ARE TAKING EVERY MEASURE TO ENSURE NO ONE IS LEFT BEHIND. I HAVE SENT MANY OF MY FRIENDS ON SEARCH TO FIND EVERYONE. YOU WILL BE PROTECTED. YOU WILL MAKE YOUR TO THE NEAREST SHIP THAT HAS LANDED. YOU WIL MAKE YOUR WAY TO ME. DON’T LET YOURSELF BE LEFT BEHIND, ALLOW MY FRIENDS TO AID YOU.
MESSAGE LOOP
The effects one has from breathing in nanites aren’t entirely pleasant, the small, intricate pieces of machinery inevitably make their way to the nervous system, where they take over the body, but not the mind. One becomes a passenger in their own body, effectively paralysed unable to take any actions of their own. Only capable of watching, terrified as they act like mere automatons walking the path to ascension.
This terror is obviously only temporary, for once one receives the gift of immortality in the nearest center of life, they will just look back and laugh how silly they were before their organic mind was processed.