“Director Kelexi, should we not inform the authorities of Overwatch about the discovery? There are tales of ancient horrors…”
The air snapped as a laser blasted through the human’s skull and the body fell limp. Blood splattered the wall, only to cleanly slide down as a vent’s powerful suction drained it clean. A well-dressed woman holstered her chiseled laser pistol and adjusted her tie. Her eyes wandered as she pondered her thoughts, eyeing the sleek curves of the white walls, the black tile floor cracked with gold, the sealed streams of water running through every other tile, and the hanging lights of crystalline orbs. Director Kelexi’s eyes snapped to her guards as reached her conclusion.
“Inform the Guard, clean up the non-essentials.”
“Yes Director,” a guard in slick padding, metal plates, and an obscured cashew-shaped helmet pressed their ear radio. “Operation Darkout is a go.”
Three guards left the room, one carrying the body, the others donning their rifles through the sliding door as screams could be heard down the corridor. Director Levia Kelexi looked below from her booth and watched the gray suited workers being led by the guards, away from a strange, round, monolithic relic dressed in runic scriptures.
“Finally, the step towards salvation.” Levia twirled the wine in her glass. “How long I sought the echoes and whispers, the legends and myths, to find the knowledge to turn this mindless, smoldering galaxy of decrepit ruin unto its head.”
From the corner of Levia’s eye she saw a twinkle that glimmered on a small table. She looked down and there was a multicolored sphere with layers of messy, obscured borders and labels of nations. Levia eyed the sphere with her glowing silver irises and grinned.
“Stratospace… broken and ever shifting territories hellbent on domination, all raised on the vague stories of lost historical glories, all seeking to resurrect and wield the cultures of old. Territories built upon an abundance of wastelands.” Levia scratched the sphere with her metal fingernails. “How truly pathetic they do not wish to craft a form of greater purpose. They only want to unbury the past, restore it, relive it, and war with one another!”
With her blackgold shoes, Levia stepped to the wide, glass window and licked it longingly.
“Others would call me a hypocrite for wanting to unearth the past but this is beyond any of us, all of us: past, present, or future. Beyond even me and my ancestors!” Levia laughed as she spun and danced from the window, drink in hand. “My dear ancestor Behema had found this relic a century ago… and was foolishly terrified just because it led to the Azure Nova! It can lead us to so much more! The Azure Nova was beautiful, a spark that caused Stratospace to tremble with fear by its myriad of strange, ethereal echoes and fantastic visions.” Levia smiled brightly. “This runic sphere, this relic artifact, will lead us to an uncertain future. And that will be the best of all futures that could come from this vexing chaos of Stratospace. It will be the end of our squabbling isolation and stagnant decay of suffering. I want to see those nations squirm in the face of an unknown beyond them.”
Levia halted and sipped her wine, clicking a button in the process. A slight rumble led the booth and the artifact’s platform to rise through many levels of the cavernous excavation, lined with metallic walkways.
“You, my dear relic, will see the light of day as our planets turn dark and fade from the prying eyes within Stratospace, it is then our study will begin. Not even the Tri-Council of Outer Heaven in their Triumvirate Overwatch will see us. Their plots and hubris of gazing into the unknown with their ceaseless secrets will be their unraveling.”
Levia quickly picked a single slice of sushi from the table and slathered it with caviar.
“And they will see Stratospace ignite into a burning storm.”
Blue and green sunlight from the twin suns shone through the wide glass of the booth as Levia smiled, chewing on her sushi. They surfaced above the killing fields, rising higher and higher as guards and chosen workers turned upon the grey suited with guns, blunt objects, sharp tools, and anything at their disposal. Mutilated and broken bodies were tossed to the corpse-ridden hover-lifts as screams filled the air.
“The legend of the psionic, arcane Starweaver, the leader of the Nisorantai Phoenix Suns and their neo-bushido military will be just a whisper in the wind of what is to come. Their hazy, prideful, ‘Way of the Phoenix’ that they claim to ‘civilize’ them only suppresses their potential. By this artifact, it will be cleared up as bright as dawn.”
Levia peered down the window as the dribbles of fresh rain poured from the sky and armored people arrived with flamethrowers, sparking them alive to torch the hoverlifts.
“The industrious Scheundastein Iron Confederation and their metal republic of infighting will break by a mere press against their internal political schemes. They designed intricate, factional worlds and pitted people’s governance and corporate governance against each other.” Levia bobbed her head side to side. “Let’s see what remains in the chaos.”
Levia lifted her glass of red wine and snapped her fingers as a chess board lowered from the ceiling on a gravitational table. It lit up as the pieces appeared as holograms.
“The cradling love of monarchs of the neo-feudal Yuhakoruzch Commonwealth by House Belosvengsk will see the historical revolution come again. They know their ‘Call of Heaven’ will end, and thus will be the end of its merry false promises, should the anathema to their beliefs manifest. The peasants and serfs will…” Levia grinned. “… have a riot.”
Levia gently tapped the pieces on the chess board, knocking every hologram over except for the pawns. With a sip of wine, she took out a piece of ornate paper trimmed in false gold and silver and stamped with an eagle.
“Then there’s the militaristic United Planets Federation of Amerus-Eaglia, a mouthful just like the names of their pretentious authorities, erroneous representations, and their delusions of grandeur by looking to the past from within the past. What absolute nonsense! When the time comes, how can their follies even conceive of holding onto their broken ideals in their false republic of an empire!”
Levia tossed the opulent paper to a candle of green flame and burned it to ash.
“So many others form the blooming flower of Stratospace… the science-directorate of the Brazgenmala Stellar Council, the cyber-democracy of Dabisumari Combine-Republic, the art passionate Kawn’gybai Alliance of Worlds, the strongarm Xigao-Bhr Sky Republic-Imperium… complacent in their vanity of contradictions, partaking and perpetuating the wars of self-destruction, and refusing to look forward with an open mind.”
Levia clapped twice, wine between her fingers, and a synthetic piano began to play with a soft, distorted orchestra. She tilted her head towards the twin suns as the bismuth landscape towered over their digsite with spires of dark green, violet, and cobalt before returning to the immaculately carved and spherical relic.
“This sphere… a discovery to change the ages in the very dead zone that the nations of Stratospace proclaim as ‘the empty void’, certain death, and the legacy of decay. Ironic really. The energies we sense are unlike anything we have ever seen and we have the opportunity to touch the very flow of it. My dear sweet ancestor, Behema, how could you’ve been so fearful to hide this relic behind your vague warnings? This is absolutely revolutionary…” Levia’s face was stern and yet a single tear came from her eye. “I want to tear Stratospace, piece by piece, petal by petal… and you are my chance, my dear mysterious sphere, to see the legends come to life and break this monotonous, withering cycle.”
The runic sphere glowed ominously as a thin layer of reality distorted around it. Slowly did pieces of the runes turn and rotate as if floating freely in a round, metallic pool.
“The future awaits.”
Zelastar 