Fallen Angel

by Stuffzilla

Chapter One: Equis Inbound

Equis Inbound

Light flooded back into his optics, and the Seraph started violently shaking. A perfectly normal descent from orbit, he thought. He quickly calculated how long it would take to reach the surface. Approximately one minute, twenty seconds, judging from atmosphere conditions. He had trusted in the Seraph to choose a discreet location for his landing. A simple forest would usually never do. He demanded either a suitably sized ravine, or an empty desert for his landings. With that thought in mind, and fifty seconds left on the clock, he sent a silent question to the Seraph. Where exactly were they landing? The Seraph quickly responded with the answer of 'in a forest'. So much for an inconspicuous landing. The process of deployment was inefficient at best, but it was how he and other Commanders traveled between star systems so quickly.

Each Astraeus was equipped with a teleportation system, which gave them the ability to open portals whilst in orbit. Travel through the portals brought the vessel to it's destination within a matter of hours, which was much faster than other forms of interstellar travel. However, as a result, upon exiting the portal, the machine loses it's ability to remain stable in it's existence for much longer. The only reason being is that they themselves opened the portal, and thus the portal was technically going through itself. The only way to resolve this, and prevent damage to their cargo, was to implement a system to ground them in reality. The result was the fruition of exactly two seconds of research. Smash the Astraeus into the surface of the planet, and all the instability will deteriorate. Surprisingly, this mind-numbingly stupid solution worked, at the cost of sending a massive shock wave of energy from the impact site, creating a crater ten metres in diameter, instantly vaporizing anything within three hundred metres, and scattering trace amounts of radiation for a thousand metres. This radiation was never able to do much to anything it came into contact with, not even given prolonged periods of time, making it just another oddity of the ludicrous solution to an extreme problem.

He ended this thought process, and checked how much time until impact. Ten seconds. He ran through some calculations of what the planet below could possibly be like. Judging from the time it took to get through the atmosphere, it had a ozone-rich stratosphere, similar to Terran planets like Earth before the Incident. With this in mind, he calculated the possibilities of life existing on this planet. It was very high, which angered him. Would this mean he would have to deal with sentients? If so, he would not be too friendly to them.

Sentients had angered him greatly at this point. It started when he had attempted to annihilate a Commander on the planet Charybdis. The sentients of Charybdis used what little military force was remaining to assist him and his forces in the battle. He had heard Universal state, "Enemy Commander annihilated." When suddenly, the sentient's weapons turned towards him and his troops, opening fire. It took little under a minute to exterminate them, and scrub the planet clean of their scum. Every other sentient species had reacted similarly, being so consumed with fear they had attempted to attack him and his soldiers. Needless to say, the species who had attempted this were not excluded from extinction.

Two seconds left. He quickly left this these thoughts behind, and buried himself in his Commander instincts. First order of business, get framework for base. Dyncik would soon arrive and assemble the structures. Next, explore the planet, locate the sentients, if they hadn't been eradicated by the other Commander already. Destroy the sentients if they pose an immediate threat (which they usually did), and finally, locate the enemy Commander, destroy his armies, and annihilate him by any means necessary.

The impact finally arrived, the shock wave exploding outwards from the unfolded Seraph beneath his feet. Instantly, he swept over the nearby landscape with his optics, scanning. The nearby trees just outside of the blast had burst into flames, burning brightly in the dark night. His laser weapon folded inward, a small launcher folding out. He fired from the launcher small markers, each with a different digital code, so Dyncik would know what to assemble. He covered every potential metal vein with extractor markers. He needed a steady source of metal, and energy to produce an efficient army. With all the markers in place, he turned and started walking through the burning trees, which only came up to his servo-harboring knees. The forest was thick, his body making a loud rustling noise as it scraped against branches, twigs, and leaves. Only a few moments after the forest was lit ablaze, the flames had died out. Peculiar, but nothing threatening, he thought to himself.

After about two minutes of walking, he came across something he didn't know how to react to. A very old Earth-style cottage at the outskirts of the forest. He had met numerous sentients before, but this struck a strange chord with him. All the other sentients he had met were at the level of technological greatness, where they would actually be able to bring harm to him and his fellow machines. This structure was a sign of humble and primordial civilization. How would they react to him? Would they worship him as a god? Or would they flee at his sight and cower as he approached?

He decided to attempt to lure the inhabitant of the bungalow to leave the small structure. But how, he asked himself. He looked to the trees, which he could ignite. He shook his head. He didn't want the sentient's reaction to be altered in any way. With that, he finally decided to just make a strange noise. He played back the sound recording of a klaxon, from the distant days of the Commander Foundry's operation, through his vocalizer. His audio inputs picked up a foreign noise, and he separated it from the original recording. It was a loud scream, that similar to a female's voice.

Perhaps using the klaxon was not the best of ideas. He stepped closer to the cottage, crouching down onto one knee. Even then, he still towered over the small structure. He powered up his Lathe, which glowed a bright blue, and sprayed over the roof of the structure, analyzing it's chemical compounds as he did so. The building material was identical in chemical footprint to that of straw, and was designed in a similar fashion as thatch, another testament to how primitive this civilization seemed to be. When all of the roofing was gone, he leaned over, peering into the small abode. Inside, there was an assortment of furniture, and a bright yellow equine cowering in the centre, staring up at him, a small white rabbit by its side. This equine had a light pink mane, what looked to be teal eyes, and a marking on it's flank of what looked to be pink butterflies.

Where is the sentient? He scanned through the small edifice numerous times, before finally focusing his attention on the equine. It seemed to have wings, similar to that of a pegasus of Creator myth. Interesting, but it wasn't what he was looking for. There was no possible way this creature was the sentient he sought. This however, was quickly disproven, as the equine whimpered and said something in a strange language. It took him a few moments before he realized it was speaking the Creator language 'English', due to the one word he understood from the sentence: 'my'.

Despite studying the Creators extensively, he hardly understood 'English'. Perhaps it was because most of those who had worked on him and were fond of their creation were of 'German' and 'Spanish' origins. He understood those languages the most, but many years filled with lack of their use had caused most words to be deleted except for those entirely necessary. He did his best to attempt to communicate with the small creature, hoping it would understand.

"Was. Ist. Dein. Titel?" He had asked her, his deep, mechanical voice rumbling out of his vocoder. He had not spoken a language other than his own for numerous millennia, so he was certain his grammar was not at it's finest. The small equine did not respond. Just another reason he didn't communicate with sentients. Everything was so hard. Different languages, numerous customs he had to learn. With that, he turned; walking away into the forest, not even bothering to replace the roof of the housing. He calculated how long it would take for Dyncik to be on the planet. Two more minutes. He shook his head, and ran numerous deep scans through his memory banks, attempting to find any other information on the 'English' language. If the sentients spoke a language he had at the very least known slightly, perhaps he could communicate. Learn about them, and they could learn from him.

Who was he kidding? If the thousands of other sentient species he had encountered were any indication, then all the sentient species would run in fear from him and his armies. Soon, their fear would bring them to attack him; it would be the last mistake they would ever make. He had developed a special algorithm in the event this occurred. Step one: Kill important military and political leaders to incite anarchy. Step two: Destroy all foundries and training grounds for military forces. Step three: Destroy remaining resistance. Step four: Enslave species, put them to work under Dyncik's supervision. It was a flawless plan, eradicating resistance and providing free labor in one fell swoop. Although any species could never be as efficient as he and his machines, it dealt with the sentients nicely, and provided a small economic boost in the process.

His motion sensors picked up something approaching him quickly from behind, he quickly leapt to the side, turning to face what had been approaching. It was the small equine, who quickly flew into his face, a mere centimeter away. It spoke more of Creator's 'English'. Fortunately, he had found more of the language on his data banks; he could understand her statement.

"And quite mean..." She had said, clearly referencing the home. He didn't respond, simply staring at her, and playing back the recording of what she had said in the house. "Oh...my...you are very...big..." Now he understood. He could attempt communication. It would take much more time to be able to carry out greater conversations, but at the very least he could keep up a friendly facade.

"I. Apologize." He said, his vocoder spluttering. He had not maintained it very well; it was not essential to operations, it's only uses being to taunt hostile Commanders and communicate with sentients. Neither of which he did much of. Perhaps that would change. The equine stared at him for a few moments, before her passive-aggressive glare turned to a soft smile, and she closed her eyes.

"It's alright...I forgive you." Forgive? He did not know the definition of the word, it's use having expired many years prior. He quickly decided to run an ancient context algorithm, which gave him the definition of 'stop blame and grant pardon'. He silently thanked his past self for not removing the algorithm from his logic cores. She had opened her eyes, staring at him with a strangely compassionate gaze. "My name is Fluttershy...what's yours?"

"My. Title. Is. Commander." He didn't really trust giving his name to anything capable of hearing. He was quite a lucrative target, and hostile Commanders were crafty; they could've possibly placed audio inputs on these sentients, without their knowledge of what they possibly could be. Fluttershy looked at him strangely, before speaking again.

"Commander..?" She asked, tilting her head slightly. He nodded slightly, but did not say anything. "That's..." She softly said, holding her mouth open to say something else for a few moments; soon closing it. He proceeded to make his way back towards the base site. Fluttershy followed him, hovering just above the top of the trees. Within two minute's time, they had arrived at the site. He looked around, confused. Dyncik was nowhere to be seen. He double-checked his calculations, discovering the mistake he had made; correcting the countdown. One more minute until impact. He turned towards her.

"Go. Back. Home. Please." He said, causing her to look at him strangely.

"W-what about my roof?" She asked in return. Her cause was justified, at the very least; he didn't replace the roof of her home.

"Soon. Will." He needed a word for replace. He searched his memory banks for a suitable word. "Reimburse." It was the closest word he could find within his memory. Fluttershy tilted her head, staring at him for a brief moment, before flying back off to her cottage. Perhaps she was confused by his manner of speech; maybe she was just so intrigued that he even existed. All he knew, is that for some odd reason, she hadn't a problem speaking with him, and he...enjoyed speaking with her.

He didn't want to think about this, so he brought his attention back to the countdown of Dyncik's descent. Ten seconds, and he was still near the estimated landing zone of his second-in-command. This didn't bother him too much; he'd been in the landing zone of enemy Commanders before, his very own second-in-command would be no different. Five seconds. He looked up in the sky, and saw a red laser shining from above. It's origin was a large pod speeding through the atmosphere, flames engulfing it. It hastily reached the ground, impacting with a loud crash, which sent a large shock wave of blue energy outwards. The wave swept past him quickly, only managing to raise his internal temperatures by ten degrees; scrambling his systems for a few moments, causing sound to become muffled and vision to become blurry. Once again, the vegetation at the edge of the area burst into flames. His blurred vision soon cleared, revealing his second-in-command bowing to him.

Dyncik was another interesting creation of his, the design originating from a long-since outdated model, the Gil-E sniper bot. The original railgun, along with an 'Uber' cannon, were now mounted onto his shoulders; the old 'sniper' weapon affixed onto his right, the 'Uber' cannon on his left. His left arm had now possessed a Commander-level Lathe, the right arm equipped with rocket launchers and a small laser weapon appended at the wrist. Dyncik had also came equipped with numerous improvements to his central intelligence, his cores - logic, simulation, and emotional - were even equipped with algorithms to take over the army if Avol were to perish in combat.

Dyncik soon rose, charging up his Lathe (which glowed a soft teal), and getting to work, assembling the extractors first, before moving onto the other structures. Avol turned and began walking back towards Fluttershy's home, certain Dyncik would have the base operational by his return. As he walked, he thought to himself. What makes Fluttershy so different to other sentients? Is it just because he could speak with her? Was the rest of her species like this? He had hoped they were, however much he wanted to think otherwise. He couldn't change this easily. Just two systems earlier he had wiped the planets clean of life with his hatred for the sentients. What was so different?

He shook his head, trying his best to kick in more of his Commander instincts. Sentients are fools. They harm those who attempt to help them. All of them deserve to die meaningless, painful deaths. Apply those principles to Fluttershy, and...the only one he ended up hating was himself. How could he think of an innocent creature in such a way? A better question is, how couldn't he? This was bothering him greatly. Perhaps Fluttershy was a weapon of sorts. She was emitting some kind of frequency, scrambling his judgement, lowering his guard. That was the only possible answer there could be! Why else would she be so welcoming of his presence? Why else would she be so willing to speak with him? Without fear, without dismay, without worry!

He let out a mechanical snarl through his vocoder, sending numerous forest creatures scampering away. He set the thought chain to the lowest priority in his logic cores. He had to make an impression, at the very least. If she was a weapon, the secret would not be hidden for long. He could see the cottage, and soon enough arrived, charging his Lathe. He swept the tool over the missing gap where the roof once was, replacing it with minimal effort. Fluttershy must've fallen back asleep, as she didn't exit the cottage. Perhaps if he didn't use the klaxon, they would've never met. He thought about this for a moment, before looking up at the night sky; gazing at the brightly glowing full moon. This particular satellite had a very strange; seemingly artificial orbit, as if it was being consistently held in place by some outside force. When the orbital systems were brought online, perhaps he would visit it; see what caused it's odd orbit.

That would come later, however. He checked the amount of time left until the War Room's arrival. It had already arrived, conveniently enough. The War Room could arrive with a much less clamor than he or Dyncik. It was robust enough to be dropped from orbit and survive with little damage, while the Astraeus could simply fly off; lose stability at a distance, making it much less noticeable. With that brought to mind, he began marching back to the base, eager to enter standby. He arrived quite quickly, and noticed Dyncik had already established a satisfactory base, numerous turrets and walls around the perimeter, foundries on standby, the War Room in the centre. Avol slipped through a hole in the fortress' barricades, stepping closer to the War Room. It opened and he lay down within it, the opening closing soon after.

Once inside, he scanned through his memory banks of all that had happened on Equis thus far. He arrived with intentions to find the Commander readings had suggested, but there seemed to be no sign of any such readings to be accurate. Perhaps his frequency key was corrupted. He would have to load a backup a couple years old, but that didn't bother him. What bothered him is how Fluttershy seemed to be so naive. So unaware of his war-like nature, so welcoming of his presence. The old thought chain came back to high priority, but he quickly banished it from his logic cores entirely. Come the morning, he would have answers. He would find the hostile Commander(s), annihilate him(them), and move on from Equis. That was all he would do, and he would never visit this planet again. He could expel Fluttershy, and the lush forests of the system from his cores, nevermore enter them again. With that, he told the War Room to awake him at noon; powered down his systems and entered standby.