The Thirteenth Entry

The main battery of the silver Battlecruiser quickly spun until it seemed to be still once more. The green energy swirled becoming aquamarine hue brightly illuminated against the silver hull of the Battlecruiser. The spinning halted suddenly, as if frozen in time, and then spun again releasing the twirling beam of energy. The discharged beam propelled itself through the second layer of shielding and through the debris field within seconds.

Sensing the danger, the Host fleet mobilized immediately – Cruisers and Frigates positioned themselves in front of the beam’s path to intercept, while the Ultra-Carriers scattered. The beam narrowed the gap quickly and eviscerated an entire line of frigates and cruisers attempting to blunt the damage. The Mega-Carriers acted quickly behind their scatter, deploying swarms of Host Fighter craft; their appearance mangled in dark distorted mechanical bliss.

The strength of the beam was impressive, but the Host fleet was innumerable. No matter how strong the beam was, the fleet would sacrifice as many as it took to survive.

As if on reaction, the spiraling beam suddenly began to separate into tiny strands from the main beam, they struck outwards destroying swaths of fighters, however, could not destroy them all. While the strands destroyed whatever they could, they separated again and destroyed the fleet further. Innumerable strands combed through the fleet, destroying cruisers and frigates out of the beam’s path, while also crippling and destroying even the Ultra-Carriers of the Host fleet.

Many Host fighters made it through the intercepting beams and hurtled toward the silver Battlecruiser – but the orbital cannons remained. They fired and destroyed some handfuls of fighters at a time but were made to destroy larger targets. Suddenly, the second shield fell, and thousands of Host fighters drew closer to the Battlecruiser. In retaliation, the Silver Fleet deployed hundreds of their own fighters – crystalline silver gleaming in the reflection of the sun.

The hundreds of Silver fighters engaged the Host fighters in a dog fight and outmatched the thousands of Host fighters in every way. The Silver fighters were flawless in maneuvering and execution. The beam continued to decimate the now numbered Host fleet, the beam separating into countless beams that coiled into countless Host vessels. It was if the beam was sentient.

Within what seemed like moments the Silver fighters were cleaning up what remained of the Host fighters. The beam narrowed, piercing through lines of vessels that shimmered in a red and orange displacement, and dissipated.

The Host fleet was decimated – an entire debris field that mimicked an asteroid belt took its place.

Watching from one of the destroyed shield pylons, my suspicions were all but confirmed with the Host fleet’s destruction: The Silver fleet was commanded by a single awareness. Its fluid reaction to the Host fleet’s own could not be carried out by a typical command structure. And the beam divided fluidly in response to an insurmountable number of enemies, as if seeing exactly where to strike.

The Host had commanded me to find the source of resistance, perhaps the commander of the fleet and it were the same. The capture of this source would be carried out with or without the Host fleet.

Barreling silently through the remaining shields I struck through the upper atmosphere and glided through the clouds of the celestial world. As if upholding the celestial sense, the entirety of the surface of the planet was a crystalline silver plating with not a shred of grass or dirt. Towering buildings covered every pour of the planet, streets cascading in silver brilliance. Yet, the world seemed like a fairy tale and perhaps was only thus. No inhabitants or other creatures could be seen moving in amongst the buildings.

As I grew closer to the ground, I noticed a lean to the buildings and streets, as if everything were growing in a direction. The scene, however, seemed off as if it were not built or purposefully done to begin with. In the distant horizon a circle of large buildings towered over the many skyscrapers of the world, and every building and road drew closer to them.

I landed with a light thud near the gathered towering buildings, perhaps a mile away, to observe the planet closely. What stood before me, however, were not empty roads. Melded and twisted silver faces, and bodies met my walk to the buildings. They reached out to the buildings in desperation, coming out of every crevice of the street and of every street I could see. They knelt and stood, some appeared crawling, and others melded completely except for a body part or face.

Climbing a crowded set of silver stairs, I felt the pulses. The pulses of a Cosmic Being. They warped over everything - pulsing into everything and nothing. Being and unbeing. Whatever I would find at the top of the stairs – it would not go lightly.