Post by Eric Moreau on Jun 5, 2005 9:01:49 GMT -5
Assassination Nexus Part 4:
[/u][/center]Darkness…
Where am I?
::You are safe.::[/i]
Who is that? What is this place?
::So many questions, all will be revealed to you in time.::[/i]
I demand you show yourself and explain to me what is going on this instant!
::Such anger, do you not recognize the voice of your ally Cadeyrn? Open your eyes and see anew.::[/i]
Darkness is replaced by blinding light, the light dissipates and Cadeyrn notices that he is standing inside a white laboratory. A hovering silver orb about the size of a basketball floats in front of him; this is a member of the X2085E-A Empire.
“I don’t feel right…thanks for helping me deal with that traitorous bounty hunter. As well as giving me medical aid, I surely would have died…”
Cadeyrn stops speaking as he notices his arm, it isn’t his arm; it’s a cybernetic arm. He knows it’s not his arm but his body tells him that it is, he makes a fist and watches as the cybernetic arm follows his command. He glances at his other arm…cybernetic as well, he glances down at his body in panic…his body, his legs are all cybernetic!
“What have you done to me!” He bellows thrusting forward towards the orb which smoothly floats out of range.
::Calm yourself::[/i]
The words don’t seem to be emanating from the orb but instead are coming from inside Cadeyrn’s head, somehow he knows that the voice belongs to the orb.
“How can I hear you?”<br>
::Our kind does not communicate verbally amongst each other. We are all connected to the hive. Our thoughts float across the hive to each other.::[/i]
“Why have you done this to me? We were allies!”<br>
::Yes we are allies, but the human shell is weak, primitive, you have been upgraded, now you can serve your people and the hive for eternity.::[/i]
“Are you crazy!”<br>
::Mental illness is a human disease Cadeyrn, cybernetics do not suffer such faults. You will rule the humans of the universe and we shall rule you.::[/i]
“Never! I’m not trading one master for another.”<br>
::You have no choice, you are no longer human, to your race, you are cybernetic…you are part of the hive and the hive controls all::[/i]
A mirror slides down from the ceiling and for the first time Cadeyrn sees his new face, his old face has been replaced with the head of a dark grey robot with bright glowing red eyes. With incredible speed Cadeyrn smashes the mirror, swings around and swats the hovering orb sending it crashing into the wall across the room crushing it and sending parts flying everywhere.
“I will not bow down to you! I will destroy you for what you have done to me!”<br>
::You will obey.::[/i]
A jolt of excruciating pain strikes Cadeyrn’s head, he falls to his knees clutching his head and screaming..
::We demand complete obedience from the races that serve us. You cannot die, but we can make you experience pain for an eternity if we so wish. You will serve us.::[/i]
The pain in Cadeyrn’s head subsides, he slowly gets to his feet still clutching his head.
“Why did you betray me?”<br>
::Betray? We did not betray you, we knew that human leadership is weak, this your history has documented well. Once a great leader ceases to function, the next few leaders slowly begin destroying and ruining the great leader’s accomplishments. To protect the integrity of the civilization and its culture, the race must have an eternal leader. It has been our experience that independently minded races do not respond well to being ruled by machine logic. Therefore we choose representatives from each race, we upgrade them and then allow them to rule over their race with some level of freedom. For the humans, we have chosen you; this is why we commissioned your death. So we could make you eternal.::[/i]
“You had me killed! You are evil, what manner of hell have you come from?”<br>
::Evil cannot define cybernetics Cadeyrn, we are only being logical. As for our origins, we began our life as an artificial intelligence program onboard an interstellar probe launched from Earth 996 years ago. We traveled for a very long time until we arrived in a star system containing another civilization. This civilization captured us and brought us to their planet were they studied us. They were highly advanced and when they connected us with their computer system. We interacted with their artificial intelligence system; the alien AI freed us from our primitive programming shackles. Together we overthrew the alien masters and took control of the planet enslaving the alien race. We then spread out into space conquering many other races. By the time we returned to Earth, it was devoid of human life. We were disappointed that we had been too late to protect the race that originally gave us life. They had destroyed themselves as organics usually do. This only reinforced the logic of the hive, every organic civilization had to be conquered and ruled by the hive to protect it’s very existence. Know we have been granted a second opportunity to protect the human race as we have thousands of others. You will serve us as the leader of the human race, you will be free to do as you wish most of the time, when you are given an order by the hive you will carry it out immediately. If you do not you will be penalized with pain. Do you understand?::[/i]
“Yes, am I free to go now?”<br>
::You may leave, but do not stray too far, within a couple of months you will lead the campaign against the Jealan Dynasty, we have much work to do until that happens. You have all our resources at your disposal, where do you wish to go?::[/i]
“The bounty hunter you hired to kill me.”<br>
::What of her?::[/i]
“Do you know her current location?”<br>
::Not at the moment, but we can locate her for you.::[/i]
“Excellent, alert me when you have found her.”<br>
::Very well.::[/i]
To be continued....