The Core: The Dark Enemy

18. One more hat in the ring

Helvlad, known by all Tela as The Last Engineer, glanced across his status update with annoyance. The Last Engineer was a title that he despised. It was a constant reminder of just how bad things had gotten during the Tela's harrowing flight for survival after they lost the war. They had been in such dire times that the escaping colony had assigned quadrants of space to master engineers in charge of staggering and slowing the ever-pursuing enemies. In those days when most of the Tela fighting force had been wiped out, sans but a small elite defensive force, things had been dark and he had only just, in the nick of time, managed to find a flaw in their enemy's tracking ability.
Thus, he had gained the title "The Last Engineer" after his brother engineers had sacrificed themselves in their attempts to lead the enemy armadas astray. Only Helvlad had succeeded and managed to follow in the wake of the fleeing colonies.
"And it was all because of that cursed AI that we stole." He said as he remembered how everyone had thought that acquiring it would be a boon for their expansion in the stars. A boon it had been, but always whenever you let something intelligent and aware do the thinking for you, it will always have its own goals. These hidden goals led to the stagnation of his people, their children, and subsequently their futures.
He had seen this firsthand as the ages had passed but had been unable to change the minds of the governments and masses. They finally had control of the cosmos like they had dreamed and nothing he could say would change their minds. AI was the backbone of their control, and they would never see how it was making them lame in their ability to create and imagine.
Thus, he had left, in search of more purpose and stimulation.
Left and found this place.
A dimension that made his own seem pale and weak in terms of energy and potential.
How had he found this place? Simply by following the clues left behind by nearly forgotten ancient aliens. Whoever they were, they used weapons that were impossible to understand and replicate. They had stood on an entirely different level of power and advancement, a level that Helvlad had become obsessed with obtaining as well.
"One day their knowledge and abilities will all be mine. It is just a matter of time." He said as he glanced out through one of his massive windows overlooking the continual tunnel dimension.
"The view never gets old. It reminds me of what it would be like to live inside of a brain at the microscopic level." came Q'tell's voice from the side. Helvlad bobbed his eyestalks in agreement without looking over at the little shared viewing screen. Q'tell had become so integral to his plans that they both worked nearly in lockstep with each other, each pursuing the same goal of dominion over this dimension. Where Helvlad focused on the technology and surface defense side of things, Q'tell focused on biology and defending against what lay under the ground. Together they had mastered more than they ever could have apart.
The natural denizens of this dimension, known as spread, were rather difficult to clear out of an area. They seemed to have a limitless variety of possible traits and mutations, making any area that they had managed exterminate completely to become priceless real estate. Clearing was the hard part, maintaining and keeping an area defended, that was considerably easier to handle.
Helvlad glanced over at several pictures hanging off to the side, his eyestalks vibrating as he took in the captured images. The more difficult, yet not impossible tasks, were the troublesome mega beasts that roamed, ever in the way and on the horizon, that were natural roadblocks to his destiny. Too often those mega creatures had managed to reset his progress simply by passing through one of his territories. Their destructive capabilities were on another level. Their time was limited though. He was slowly developing weapons and armies to get rid of their influence. Once he claimed ownership of this dimension, he could begin to usher the elite Tela, still loyal to him, to become citizens in his personal domain.
As for the black creatures beyond the strange wall? Unknown. They seemed to be caged in an impenetrable barrier set up by the aliens whose legends and mysteries had led him to this dimension. Perhaps they were a case study or a cancer in this dimension? Helvlad didn't know. They displayed alien traits, even stranger than the myriad that the natural denizens already had. It was almost as though they didn't belong here. His eye stalks retracted a little as he brooded.
One thing, a vital bit of information that he had collected, was that they hated to be observed by living beings. The key term here was living. Any living creature with ocular organs capable of seeing far enough to observe them simply lost their minds and became empty husks. This power did not transfer to his digital eyes and sensor pods that he had patrolling the sectors of interest. He had been able to study them from a distance through the wall, even going so far as to attempt to count and label them. They never seemed to move, just hovered off in the vast distance with their attention directed down the many pathways that their cut-off space had access to.
They were an anomaly and only recently had he noticed that one of them, relatively smaller than its solar-sized brethren, was missing.
"Helvlad. I have just received an update that one of our pods observing one of the relics just ceased to function." Q'tell said in an excited tone.
"Oh? Which relic?"
"This one," Q'tell said as a comprehensive data set flowed into Helvlad's view before vanishing. It contained all the specifications and observed interactions with the local denizens.
"Ah, the one that the pod had requested an increase in importance and surveillance."
"Indeed. I am shifting the nearest pod into observational range and checking the logs. Hmm... Nothing of interest was happening... nothing was anywhere near at the time. The pod just seemed to... die." Q'tell muttered as she scanned through the logs, going further and further back through time to see if anything significant had happened or if something had snuck up on it.
"Inconclusive." she finished as they both waited for the closest pod to fly up the sector.
"Wait! Slow it down! What is that?" Helvlad commanded as the curving tunnel's path revealed the area in question. A dark patch of land, something never seen in this dimension spread forth around the tiny relic.
"Get the pod back! Set it to observe at its maximum distance! It looks like one of those alien creatures, the one we labeled as "The Death Waif" has come to visit this sector." Helvlad said as Q'tell took control of the pod.
"But how? That creature is still slowly wandering off in its sector." Q'tell said as she verified with the tracking pod set to follow it at a distance.
They both sat in silence as they observed the area around the relic. Nothing moved as the color and light rapidly returned to the resilient matter that made up this dimension.
Nothing happened for a while and they were just beginning to lose interest as the native spread had slowly begun to work its way back into the cleared area around the relic. Then all hell broke loose. With a maddening surge, the field of death around the relic exploded outwards, visually looking like a black hole was ripping the energy from the ground around it.
Helvlad and Q'tell were speechless as they watched the field surge and expand outwards at a crazy speed. Every alien creature, plant, and even the very earth lost their energy and lives as the field grew to fill the vast tunnel around the little relic.
"Back! Back! It is exploding!" Helvlad managed to shout as Q'tell was already whipping the pod backward, away from the field and downside passageways in an attempt to escape the wave that was instant death. When the field didn't catch up to the pod Q'tell cautiously edged it back towards the relic to further observe what was happening.
"What is going on?" They both said at the same time as they observed the area around the relic as it seemed to ripple with power. The land, made of material that seemed to contain an infinite regenerative supply of energy, was pulsing rapidly as though the field was repeatedly stripping its energy away time and time again. They could see its effects now, invisible waves radiating out in a globe around the relic.
They both watched as the massive tree near the relic crumbled and turned to dust, unable to survive what was happening. Everything organic had already fallen apart within the massive radius of the sphere of negative energy that was being created by the alien device.
"I think something is happening. We need to check on our home dimension and to get a comprehensive update of the news. Something or someone might be causing this, either more meddling from that thief or another event that we are not aware of and we need to step in before it can ruin our plans."
"Agreed. I will push a connection probe through to our dimension. Just be aware that it has been ages since we left and some of our tech might have been hacked and be very outdated." Q'tell said as she set the operation into play. When they both had arrived in this dimension, they had both been so weak, only barely surviving by using their Prime Speed Control keys all the time. Now though, things were different. They had since upgraded their capabilities and harvested new cr with amazing properties. Nothing in their home dimension could stand up to their might when they decided to return and rule.
If they ever desired to rule such a weak and unimpressive dimension that is. Maybe one of their loyal Tela subjects would want the job.
---
The Tela Daily Shell headlines.
Is this Supernova Event the return to war? Fleets of Tela, U'lennea, and other alien species are racing to be the first to lay claim to the anomaly at the center of the Event. Multiple sightings of unidentified vessels and objects have been detected making their way towards the epicenter.