Conquest In The Name Of Advancement (Plannetary Annihilation Self Insert Multicross)

[Flameal15k]

Based on the works of Battleship_Fusou , Faith, Blackhole1, and Drich.

They got me interested in this kind of multi-crossover, so here's my entrance to the band wagon.

Spoiler: Universes Visited

Hub
Spore
Darkspore
Civilization:Beyond Earth (With Rising Tide and Starships)
—>XCOM (fused with Civilization:Beyond Earth)
Galactic Civilizations

Spoiler: Universe to Visit

Arpeggio of Blue Steel
Grey Goo
Sanctum
FTL
Halo
Warhammer 40k
Mass Effect
Sins of a Solar Empire
Nasuverse
Evolution: Battle for Utopia
Implosion: Never Lose Hope
Discworld
Warframe
Planetside
Evolve
Titanfall
Call of Duty
Gears of War
Civilization: Beyond Earth
XCOM
Bioshock
FEAR
DOOM
WATCH DOGS
Supreme Commander
Darkspore
Planetary Annihilation
Tales Series (several times)
Starcraft

Spoiler: Technologies Acquired

From Spore: Matter and energy conversion equipment, advanced repair, extreme terraforming technology, antimatter weaponry, gravitic weapons, planet buster, Staff of Life.
From Darkspore: EDNA and various derivative technologies, including advanced nano-robotics exceeding the tech level of baseline Spore
From Civilization:Beyond Earth: Firaxite, Floatstone and xenomass synthesis, advanced satellite research, sonic weaponry, various civic technologies
* Technology acquired from XCOM forces in Civilization:Beyond Earth: Plasma Weapons, Handheld Laser Weapons, Gauss Weapons, Sonic Weapons, Fusion Lance, Pulse Wave Torpedo, Psionics and Molecular Control, Alien Alloys, Aqua Plastics

Dramatis Personae:

Spoiler: Main Characters

Commander Flame: Commander and Main Protagonist of the story, male
R.O.B.: Gender unknown, Random Omnipotent Being who placed Flame within a Xenosentry commander
Rory: Full name Rourke, commander Flame's son (while mostly created from a stock amount of human DNA, Rory contains genetic material both from Flame's current avatar and his original human self)

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At last!

After a rough semester, buggy computers, and a few (surprisingly easy) odd finals, IT WAS TIME! I could finally run Planetary Annihilation and its expansion! AND I HAD A MONTH TO SPARE! Truly, nothing could go wrong.

If you are at all familiar with the rules of narratives, and literary common sense, you should know how DEAD WRONG I was......

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I booted up the game on my laptop. My old computer was unable to run the game (probably ran out of CPU), and I wasn't supposed to use my laptop for anything other than school work, so I was sincerely hoping my parents wouldn't come home soon.

First thing that came up was the menu, followed by the standard 'verify you game key code' pop ups. They were annoying, and I'd lost the usage of a few games forever because of them (looking at you, Universe at War), but I'd rather not have my game pirated.

Then, I received a new pop-up.

'Thank you for purchasing Plantary Annihilation and its Titans expansion. We're testing out a new update that can only be installed in game, but will make the experience much more enjoyable. Just click accept to get started.'

'Yours Truly'

'ROB'

My thoughts on this were as followed:

1. Okay that was odd.

2. Who's ROB?

3. Why do I feel that something bad is about to happen?

4. JUST LET ME PLAY MY GAME, YOU STINKING SPAMBOT!!!

So, without thinking, I clicked the button.

Then everything went black.

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[SYS_STARTUP_INITIATED]
[PRIMARY SYSTEMS:ONLINE]

[COMPUTER CORE-ONLINE]
[METAL FABRICATOR-ONLINE]
[FUSION POWER GENERATOR-ONLINE]
[COMBAT SYSTEMS-ONLINE]
[MOVEMENT SYSTEMS-ONLINE]
[COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS-ONLINE]
[SENSOR SYSTEMS-ONLINE]

[SYSTEMS NORMAL]

[RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS]

[ERROR-CMDR_AI_DESIGNATION_893452B NOT LOCATED]
[SEARCHING FOR ALTERNATIVE AI]

[SCANNING]
[SCANNING]
[SCANNING]

[NEW COMMANDER FOUND]

[INIT_CMDR_FLAMEAL15K]

[CMDR_XENOSENTRY_ONLINE]

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Next thing I knew, I was in darkness. Then, I noticed a screen come online. With nothing else to look at, and trying to find some sense of normalcy in the ABSOLUTE CHAOS I was in, I read it:

LANDING IN 60 SECONDS, PREPARE FOR ANNIHILATION.

Two things ran through my head:

1. Wasn't that the line thye showed on Planetary Annihilation when your commander was first dropped in? (I watched youtube videos, okay?)

2. I'm falling. I'm falling I'm fallingI'mfalling I'm FALLING!

I tried banging my head around to see if I could escape my impending arrival with, well, whatever I was falling toward. All I did was discover that I could dent things by hitting them with my head and that this didn't cause me any pain. Curious, I decided to turn my thoughts inward for a moment and couldn't believe what I found.

I was in a Xenosentry.

I was in a commander from Planetary Annihilation.

NO, I WAS a commander from Planetary Annihilation.

Well, figured it out, now, have you?

What? Who's there? Are you psychic?

Call me ROB, and yes.

ROB? The guy who sent me the pop up? But why would he.....

Wait. Rob. ROB. R.O.B. Random Omnipotent Being RANDOM OMNIPOTENT BASTARD

"NNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Well you're certainly annoying.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ME?"

Well, this is part of an experiment. You've been inserted into a Planetary Annihilation commander, something I know you have experience with, and besides, you're a Supreme Commander fan anyways. You see, a friend of mine started an experiment where someone received a fully teched up commander and had the power to travel across universes. It was so amusing, and impressive, I must add, that I decided to have a few experiments of my own. The focus was on integrating all of the absolutely broken bullshit technology together, but you can take that focus anywhere you want it, if I'm being honest.

Yeah, yeah, tell me what I'm up against.

I'm sorry?

I really doubt you'd just let me jump into a commander with all of the obtainable tech from PA and its expansion and not give me a challenge to fight against. Also, I have the desire to destroy something, and I can't hit you, I die if this commander is destroyed, and I will die if this pod explodes.

....killjoy. Well, I think you be wary about the native wildlife on the planet, since you will be hitting the planet with the force of a nuke.

Note to self: start making a kaiju killing machine.

You sure it's kaiju sized?

No, but giant robots fighting monsters is awesome.

Though I should also prepare something for dealing with a swarm of killer bugs. And maybe make a mind control device. These beasts could make good pets.

You're a control freak. You know that, right?

Guilty as charged. Now, would you shut up and let me prepare myself for battle?

Okay, little man. Just a final word, though.

What?!

You're not the only one involved in this experiment. There are others. Some will probably be friendly to you, but others..... well, you should watch your back.

Thank you.

With that, I took a look at the screen in my pod. Now, it showed me my destination: a rather large world, with big oceans. Surprisingly, unlike most PA worlds, it had multiple biomes: deserts, ice caps, forests, even coral reefs.

That just means more things out there to kill me.

I decided to feel through the systems in the pod. It turned out I could control the speed of the pod, as well as other maneuvering stuff. I thought about adjusting the speed, or maybe changing my landing site, but then I decided against it: The landing sight I had was coastal and had plenty of metal deposits, and if I went any faster, I might get buried so deep that I'd be under attack the minute I escaped the crater I'd just made.

So, I just decided to brace for impact.

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Looking back, I was glad that, of all things, I remembered that line about the other participants in the experiment. Because trust me, it was WAY more important than anything else ROB had told me.

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AN: Finally got around to posting this on Questionable Questing. Welcome to my entry into the Commander Self Insert Genre!

Just a heads up, I have over two hundred chapters already written for this story, so expect a lot of updates within the next few days.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally made landfall. It was, surprisingly, a rather boring affair. Maybe that had to do with fact that the landing didn't involve a giant quake, but rather, a low thud. Or maybe it was because I was still coming to terms with the fact I was a plaything for R.O.B.

Oh well.

When the dust settled, I took in my surroundings. I'd landed in a forest on the coastline of one of the planet's continents (there were 3 in total). Most of the trees around my LZ had just ceased to exist, and a few that had survived were on fire. I would've put them out, but I had nothing to put them out with at the moment, so I just decided to let them burn.

Anyways, on to building. I doubted the wildlife would attack me immediately, even if it was programmed to kill me. The explosion probably scared them. So, with at least five minutes free of violence, I got to work setting up my base.

I started with my usual Supreme Commander setup: one extractor, adjacent power plant, then an adjacent factory (vehicle one, in this case). I repeated this process until I had every single factory except for an orbital one, because I needed fabbers for that.

That was why the first thing to role off the factory assembly lines were fabbers, followed by a few ants, some doxes, a grenadier trio, and a stitch. I set the fabbers to start building defenses, while my commander started building radar. This was probably pointless, considering that most living things aren't radar emitters, but I just wanted to be safe.

And it looked like this planet had life that was an exception to the rule, because as soon as the radar came online, I saw a huge number of blips heading toward me from the south. Okay, that's a problem. I sent my small army south, while my factories began churning out new units to replace them, because seriously, I didn't expect to be able to curbstomp these things right off the bat. R.O.B. isn't the kind of person to send bugs at you that can easily be beaten with a boot.

Incidentally, a lot of the unknown blips turned out to be giant bugs. A few looked like reptiles, and there was a least one that looked like a killer shrew, but most of them looked like termites and bed bugs.

Well then, time to break out the bug bombs.

My initial strike force did a lot better than expected at utterly crushed the bugs, with only one ant and two doxes as casulaties. I was proud of my victory, but I wasn't going to bask in it. Already, I had started setting up a naval fleet and a couple more land factories to reinforce my army, because I doubted that I'd just be fighting weak little bugs.

I regretted being right about that fact.

Another set of blips showed up on the radar, only this time, one of the was a lot bigger than the others. It revealed itself to be some kind of rock-ape-THING that looked like an Earth Elemental from ARK. It promptly threw a giant rock at my army, destroying three tanks and five doxes. The ensuing battle ended in my victory, but all I had left was a dox pair, one pillar, my trio of grenadiers and my stitch.

I immediately started moving in some replacement units to reinforce my depleted army: more ofwhat I already had, along with a few flame tanks and mobile bombs, plus some slammers. Just in time too, because the next wave included a bunch of bat like creatures that spit acid (really, acid bats? That's the best flying creature you could come up with, R.O.B.?).

The following battle really wasn't different from before, and I didn't take too many losses, but again, I didn't think this was over. I started building a few fighters and bombers, along with a small fleet. I also started building a few advanced factories, so that I could start fielding the bigger guns soon.

By the time that the fourth wave showed up, I'd got a fleet moved in to provide fire support for my army. Bring it on, bug beasts.

Then a giant shark emerged from the water and ate a destroyer. It promptly got torpedoed to death, but still....

A GIANT SHARK? This was going to be a problem.

Back at base, I'd begun building an orbital factory. The minute it came online, I set it to produce a fabber and a bunch of fighters, because I needed orbital superiority. Raining death from above was also very amusing.

Soon, I had a giant horde of machines ready for battle, along with some advanced units to back them up. Considering that I'd gone through at least half a thousand beasts on land, and few sharks in the water while I'd waited for the army to finish building, I didn't think I'd have much left to deal with. I mean, yes, there were probably more things left to kill, but it's not like there were any new surprises left out there.

"Warning, abnormally large entity detected from the south. Size comparable to Atlas titan."

Oh. There was that.

"Warning: large fleet of unidentified composition coming from the west."

And that.

Me and my big mouth.

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AN: Going to upload until the start of the first story arc, then take a break for tonight. That should give you....seven chapters to read. So please, enjoy!

Read and Review! this is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

I started setting all of my factories to produce as many units as possible. Bombers, fighters, tanks, gunships, frigates, grenadiers, ANYTHING that could repel the incoming forces. I even started building an Atlas titan, even though the odds of it finishing in time for me to use it against whatever was headed my way were not in my favor (shut up, Haymitch). Still, if it did finish before then, it would be a nice addition to my army.

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The fleet of sea creatures headed my way were the first things to hit me. It turned out they were a mix of fish, squid, and the occasional giant crab. A few artillery emplacements I'd set up early on thinned their numbers out, but there was still a sizable number of them left to smash into my fleet and base defenses. I think I saw some giant things resembling archer fish shoot water jets at my army, but most of the creatures just attacked with jaws, claws and tentacles. As a side of effect of this, only the giant seafood specials were able to attack my land defenses. They were unbelievably tough, but they had trouble turning, so I just surrounded them and gunned them down with doxes.

Suck it, ROB.

Anyways, I didn't get the chance to totally annihilate the seafood fleet before the army of beasts from the south hit my base. Owing to the fact that the giant blip appeared to be the size of an Atlas, the first things to attack me were more of the bugs, reptiles and mammals that I'd seen earlier, but now with the aid of several giant birds and what looked like giant frogs.

Something to put on devinantart when I get home, I guess.

Anyway, the weird animal alliance faced some of the same problems their marine friends had: artillery killed a fair number of them, and the base defenses and guard army quickly started inflicting heavy casualties. Problem was, these creatures were exponentially more numerous then their aquatic allies, so they could afford to take the losses. Plus, they had a lot more ranged units then the sea monsters, some of which could shoot back at the artillery. I had to get some mends and stitches fixing my artillery, and I still lost a few emplacements.

Meanwhile, the giant blip was still getting closer.

Looking over my forces, I noticed that most of the enemy fliers had been destroyed. Seizing the one chance I had, I launched a few air scouts at the blip, so that I could see what I was up against.

I really did not like what I saw.

The thing I was fighting against could best be described as the unholy union of the monsters Hedorah and Destoroyah, because it looked like a giant demon made out of slime. It had giant wings, but since it was walking, I assumed that it was too heavy to fly, or the wings were too weak, or something like that. It also had way more eyes than normal, as well as a giant mouth on its chest.

It stared at my scout for a moment, before flapping its wings. The resulting gusts were, according to sensors that I didn't even know the scout had, were comparable to hurricanes. My poor air scout was flattened into the ground so hard that it practically disintegrated. There wasn't even an explosion, it just seemed to cease to exist.

I immediately threw everything I had at the giant and aimed all of my artillery at it, even if it was out of range. I made a point of trying to destroy any smaller beasts that were still supporting it, because their was no way I was going to let it have backup when it attacked my base.

The monster just stared at my army before grabbing and throwing some of its allies into my forces, obliterating a couple dozen units with each throw.

Really? This was an OP beast, please nerf.

Still, it was taking hits. Wounds started appearing all over the slimy titan (you know what, I'll just call it the slime demon from here on out, because it looked a lot like one), and it seemed to be getting tired.

Aww, and I thought it would be tougher.

The slime demon responded by roaring. Loudly.

As in, the roar generated a sonic shockwave that completely annihilated my army. Only my navy (which was busy chasing off the rest of the sea monsters) and the robots that I kept back at base survived the attack.

And unfortunately for me, neither was enough to hurt this thing.

Without any fear of reprisal, the slime demon continued on its path toward my base. In fact, I think it knew that I wouldn't be able to generate any real defense against it, because it seemed to be going a lot slower than it had been earlier and, if I was looking at it right, it was SMILING.

How the hell was I supposed to defeat it now?

"Atlas Titan online."

.......Oh....

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

I'd love to say that the Atlas looked at the slime demon, reared up, and obliterated it with one of its shockwave stomps.

I'd be lying.

Also, what actually ended up happening was much cooler than that.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The slime demon roared loudly as soon as I heard the report telling me my titan had finished construction. Apparently, it had heard it too, or figured out that it had come online some other way, because it changed direction and put itself on a collision course with the titan. As it did so, it released a loud roar that caused my radar to screw up and generate blips that didn't exist. Somehow, it was jamming my radar.

Also, I noticed that it was emitting a different signal from its radar jamming roar, but it didn't seem important, so I ignored it.

Not wanting to wait for the giant slime demon to destroy my titan, I sent the Atlas on a collision course with the slime demon. It started meandering through the wall of factories, turrets, and actual walls I'd set up to protect it from the onslaught of angry wildlife, but it was slow going.

Note to self: make Atlas faster, that thing is way too slow.

Anyways, just as the Atlas managed to get past the last set of defenses, the slime demon arrived to meet it. The creature stared at its opponent for a moment, then roared as loud as it could. This one had no special effects tied to it, so I assumed this was just meant for intimidation.

Either way, it made for a really cool sight.

Now I wish I had music.

[ACCESSING MUSIC LIBRARY]

Wait, this thing had a music library?

I wonder if the have rock songs.

[OPENING 'ROCK' SUB FOLDER]

Oh. Wow, the progenitors really did think of everything. All of the rock songs that I saw were names I recognized. Going off the sample sections I listened too, they were the real deal, and not alien songs that just ended up having the same names as ones on Earth.

I looked at them for a moment, before making my selection.

[SOUNDTRACK START: METAL GEAR RISING OST: RULES OF NATURE]

What?! It's a good song!

The slime demon roared one more time, before charging at my titan. My titan responded with a stomp attack, sending out a giant blast wave toward the demon. Somehow, it didn't harm my forces. Cool.

Unfortunately, it did only minor damage to the demon. To be fair, it obliterated it's escorts, including a few flying creatures that made the mistake of flying too low.

Unfortunately, the ones that did survive immediately ascended and started shooting acid at the Atlas. Being an Atlas titan, it couldn't hit them back.

I really needed to fix that. I mean, the Seraphim fixed that problem for the Ythona.

Anyways, I sent in a few fighters to deal with the enemy ones. The ensuing dogfight was awesome to behold, but it paled in comparison to the behemoth battle that was taking place on the ground.

The Slime Demon had collided with that Atlas, which responded by kicking it with its front legs. And no I don't mean it tried to use its stomp attack on the demon, it actually used the legs to kick it. Who would have known it could do that?

Unfortunately, the demon adapted and started hitting it back with punches. It even used a head-butt to stun it, which I didn't know was possible, nor that it would be effective against a titan. THEN, it started kneeing the titan in the gut. The machine seemed to be sagging forward and, going by my sensors, was at about 50% health, which dropped by 5% every hit it.

When it was down to 25%, the demon pulled back its left arm, which started glowing. Oh great, it was going to hit me with a burning punch. This was it, GG, end of the line for me.

[EMERCENY CLOSE QUARTER COMBAT ROUTINES ACTIVATED]

Huh? What?

The slime demon unleashed its finishing blow....

Only for my Atlas to catch the punch with its right hand.

Then it responded with a punch of its own to the demon's chest. The blow knocked the monster over, giving my titan a chance to get back on its legs.

The demon soon righted itself and let out another ear-splitting roar...

Only to be silenced when my Atlas leapt on top of it.

Which ended up reducing its health to 15%. Ouch.

THe demon manged to free itself, then began punching my titan. This time, though, the Atlas fought back and gave as good as it got. Unlike before, the demon actually seemed to be weakening from this onslaught, because it seemed to grow more sluggish and was losing a lot of blood.

Said blood was bright purple of all colors. Now I wanted the beast dead even more than before for shaming the Cat in the Hat.

The fight finally ended when my titan was at 5% health. At that point, the demon simply collapsed, unable to get back up. It certainly wasn't out of the fight though: it tried to chew on my titan's legs.

The Atlas responded with its usual attack, only this time, it was aimed right at the monster's head.

The giant goresplosion that followed (yes I'm calling it a goresplosion, don't judge me) was more than enough evidence that the thing was dead and never coming back.

OH YEAH! I DID IT! THE BEAST IS DEAD! NOTHING COULD STOP ME NOW!

[WARNING: LARGE ARMY OF UNIDENTIFIED ORGANISMS DETECTED]

Crap.

I turned my titan to face the oncoming army of bugs. It wasn't in the best shape, but it might be able to by me time to build a new army.

But, to mu surprise, the beasts seemed confused. They looked around, in a manner almost as if they were waking up from a dream.

They stared at my titan for a moment.

Then they ran.

Huh. Why'd they do that?

Then my attention turned back toward the utterly demolished corpse of the slime demon.

An idea began to formulate in my head.

Time to start studying my enemy.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

The minute that the Slime demon died, I started entrenching my base even further, just in case its death didn't stop the horde attacking me. After all, there was a non-zero chance that all I'd done by killing the monster was make everything else angry at me, and I did not want to get killed by mooks just after I'd killed the meanest one around.

Fortunately, it seemed that the death of the demon had indeed broken the monsters' will to fight. In fact, some of them had decided to take a lunch break, feasting on either the plants that hadn't been demolished by the kill-fest that had happened earlier or on the many carcass that had resulted from said kill-fest.

Deciding that it was safe, I sent out several fabbers to the corpse of the demon and began examining the body. I wasn't surprised that the fabbers had bio-scanners onboard, since they could convert trees into usable resources. Anyways, most of the results were mundane things, at least in regards to the monster I'd just fought, but then one of the fabbers examined a chunk of flesh lying nearby the Atlas' legs and things got interesting. It turned out it was a piece of the demon's brain and that it was designed to emit some kind of signal. I found it relatively easy to copy the signal, so I did just that and started shooting it out of my radar.

The minute it went out, all of the creatures within range ceased whatever they were doing and looked toward my base, as if asking for orders.

Huh, so that's how it commanded them. Maybe I should use it later.

Anyways, now onto the next problem: it turned out that the demon's death had only removed the threat of terrestrial attacks; the sea beasties were still after me. Right now, they were dying in droves at the hands of my base defenses, but I had a feeling that if I waited too long, whatever was controlling them would come after me, and I did not want t o deal with a giant sea monster, so I started to drawing up plans to deal with it.

First, I modified my sonar to search for the signal used to control the creature. To my surprise, it found two sources of that signal.

Looks like I had two monsters to deal with.

Well, time to start innovating.

First, I pulled out my submarine design and modified it, adding in a sensor to detect the signal I was looking for. I also made it's torpedoes able to target the signal as well.

Then, I began working on my bombers. I still didn't get why they didn't need to refuel and rearm after a while (I was used to building air staging facilities from Supreme Commander, so this wouldn't have been a problem for me), but I wasn't complaining. That just let me focus on my modifications; namely, giving them depth charges. Since the signal I was getting was coming rom extreme depths, I made the charges have a massive depth limit, so that I'd actually be able to reach their targets before exploding.

Finally, I decided to add in a signal emitter to my frigates, which was tuned to emit the same signal that the slime demon emitted. Hopefully, this would confuse any monsters that the demon used against me, and let me focus on the boss monster.

I also gave my sub torpedoes IFF systems, just so I could avoid having my torpedoes hit my frigates. I WAS GOING TO BE HOISTED BY MY OWN PETARD.

Anyways, once the changes were made, I saved the designs separately from the originals, since I'd like to use the original designs as starting points for other advances. Also, I liked thee originals and didn't really want to part with them.

With all of the changes set, I started building up a new fleet. Time to go deep sea fishing.

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AN: Originally, five creatures were planed to be controlling the sea monsters, but then I decided I wanted to give the monsters a bigger fight scene, so I just shortened the amount to two. Next chapter will be the second to last before we finally end up in another universe.

Now, Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

Well, let me say this now: I REALLY didn't expect what happened when I went after those signals underwater.

But I think I should show you what actually happened down there first.

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My subs travelled deeper into the depths, things getting darker as they progressed. As it turned out, the sources were within a pair of ocean trenches, so I was worried I'd actually have my subs implode before I reached the targets. Now that would be a humiliating way to lose my army.

Fortunately, my subs were able to reach the appropriate depth and still remain functional. Whew. Considering my depth charges had the same pressure limits as my subs, that meant they'd still work down here as well. Nice.

With my subs ready, I began exploring the trenches. A few creatures showed up on the sonar and on my sub cameras, but they just ignored me. They looked as if they were stoned, but some looked really confused. Probably had to do with my counter signal. Hopefully, they would stay that way until after I killed whatever was controlling them.

And frankly, some of them looked weird. Oh sure, some were realistic, such as giant sharks, mega-anglers, colossal squid, even the occasional overgrown woodlouse (yes they exist on Earth), but then there were fish with shrimp legs and huge barnacles that could crawl around the ocean floor. Seriously, WTF ROB?

Anyways, it was about this time that I noticed that the subs were approaching their targets. I began shutting off their camera lights, because I was really betting on this thing having bioluminescence. I mean, a lot of deep sea creatures had bioluminescence, plus it looked cool, so I doubted ROB would pass up on that chance.

Now, let's see, what should I expect these creatures to have.

The only tings I could think of were atomic breath or something similar, cause Godzilla, and giant parasites, like Clover.

Oh well, guess I was going in really blind.

Then, I noticed that lights had started appearing before my subs. According to my sensors, there were the source of the signal.

I activated the torpedoes and locked onto the signals. Time to end this. I knew one volley would probably just make them angry, but that'd probably give me a good idea of how much damage these torpedoes would do against these things.

To my surprise, the first volley went through without a hitch. After the blast lights faded, I found the water filling with bioluminescent blood. Then, to my surprise, more bioluminescent patches lit up on the creatures' bodies, which were really friggin' big. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out what they looked like.

Then each of the bodies split into a set of four smaller bodies.

Wait, what.

I checked my sensors. Yep, the eight smaller bodies were emitting the same signal as the bigger two.

This was just fucking PERFECT!

I quickly set my subs to scatter, then fired another volley of torpedoes. I also set the depth bombers to start dropping the charges, along with the torpedoes. Finally, I activated the lights, revealing my foes to be weird.....arthropod...fish.....things.

Alright then, BRING IT ON, YOU OVERGROWN FILLETS!!!!

My foes quickly scattered, forcing my subs to split into smaller sub groups to chase them. The sea devils (because that's any easy name, okay) began shaking around, releasing a bunch of flecks into the water. Which suddenly began charging me. Turns out they were human sized isopods, some of which I'd seen earlier.

Called it, ROB!

Anyways, these guys were hard to kill. I mean, they took out 10 subs before I gave one sub group per sea devil horde orders to directly attack them. Even if I was playing Supreme Commander, that would have been a giant loss.

Fortunately, I'd made sure to use a few hundred subs against each devil pack. I was not going to come this far only to lose to a pair of wolf pack bosses!

Anyways, back to the fighting. One of my sub groups was right on the tail of one of the devils. I'd made sure to use three other packs to focus on its pack mates, because otherwise they wer going to tear me apart. I quickly readied a second set of torpedoes. Time to cook these fish!

Then, it turned around as the lights on its body started getting brighter and brighter. Then, it opened its mouth and shot a giant beam of light its pursuers, cutting the sub pack following it in half.

Atomic Breath. Again, CALLED IT ROB!

Anyways, I ordered the subs that were still following that particular devil to split into two groups and start firing torpedoes as fast as possible.

One of them was promptly eaten by another devil. Oh well.

I decided to turn my attention back to the other group of subs, to see how they were doing.

It turns out that they were reduced to just one sub per sea devil while I was focused on the other pack.

And said subs were now being eaten by the devils.

Well, screw you too! I promptly fired the torpedoes in the subs. If these guys were gonna cost me all my subs, I might as well give them some stomach aches before they came after my commander.

So I was pretty surprised when they, in synch, spit out my subs, vomited up a huge amount of blood, began writhing in pain for a few moments, then went stiff and began sinking.

I checked my sensors. The signal had halted from them. They were dead.

OH YES!!!!! TAKE THAT!!!!

I really wanted to enjoy my victory, but I still had one more pack to deal with. Plus, I didn't really have a body to enjoy it with.

Anyways, back with the other pack. My subs were still doing much better than their partners, as there were no parasites in the water, barring a few fragments of exoskeleton and flesh. There was also a lot of blood pouring into the water from the devils. Oh yeah.

That was when the devils got serious. They turned to face the subs, and opened their mouths really wide.

Then, suddenly, half of my subs flew into the open mouths, were swallowed and destroyed.

Great, suction mouths.

Also, where were those depth charges?!?!

I checked my sub numbers and was unnerved by the results: I only had four left. The remainder had gone offline.

Time to bail.

I set my subs to begin retreating. Once I was far enough away, I'd start having them rise up, but right now they were too close to the devils for that to work. If they did, they'd show the devils right up to my doorstep, an I did not want to deal with that.

Unfortunately, the devils wised up and opened their mouths as wide as possible. I soon found my subs facing an immense amount of force pulling them toward those open maws.

CURSE YOU ROB!

Then, to my surprise, several hundred glowing lights floated down in front of the sea devils, before being sucked into their maws. I quickly checked ,y sensors.

Those lights were my depth charges.

And the sea devils had just swallowed them.

I cannot describe in words how satisfying it was to watch the devils disappear into blinding light. I mean, one minute their eyes widened, seemingly realizing exactly what they swallowed, and then they just ceased to exist. I couldn't even find a single piece of any of their boides, there was just nothing left to work with.

OH YEAH! I DID IT! SUCK IT ROB!

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Anyways, things really calmed down after that. With nothing controlling them, the wildlife went back to normal. I saw some of the eating each other, or feeding on ocean vent smoke, but most just scattered. I briefly considered wiping the planet clan of life, but decided against it; I'd rather study them and see if I could glean any advances out of them. Maybe I'd even turn some into livestock.

With all of the possible threats dealt with, I decided it was time to start working on expansion. I began setting bases up all over planet, along with a few on the other ones in the system.

In fact, my biggest focus right now was investigating the worlds in my system. What I found surprised me.

Most of the system was rather standard, including a lava world, an ice ball, a desert planet, a forest world, an ocean one, a gas giant and a... wait, is that a metal planet?

I have an annihilaser? YES!

Then I noticed an odd signal coming from the desert world. I sent a fabber to investigate and was stunned with what I found.

It was an Osiris Commander. And it was still functional.

I wasn't sure what to do. Should I repair it? Destroy it? Enslave it? So many choices-I repaired him

Or at least, started to. According to my fabber, it would take at least a week to fix him and that's using A LOT of fabbers. Oh well.

It was then that I noticed that I had received a message from ROB

I opened it, and here is what it said:

Dear Flame

Here's the blueprint for the dimension gate. Time to prove yourself, kid. IF you succeed, great. IF you fail...... I'm putting you in for a Raspberry.

Sincerely, Rob.

p.s. The incoming drop is also from me. Consider my one good deed for the millennia.

I wondered what he meant when a loud scream turned my attention to the sky. I watched as a pod fell out of the sky. Cautious, I sent in a fabber vehicle to examine it.

To my surprise, It was filled with gifts. And they were all addressed to me.

But why-Wait.

Now that I wasn't under constant threat, I started counting how many days I'd been here. The resulting number confirmed my thoughts.

Today was Christmas Eve.

Tomorrow was Christmas.

I can't remember if I laughed or cried (I think I did both), but a part of me went really cold when the realization hit me that I'd spend Christmas alone for god knows how long. On the other had, I actually felt happy that ROB decided to let me have all of the gifts I was supposed to get. It wouldn't be too hard to make a system capable of playing them using my body (if they were games or movies) and I was looking forward to reading any books I got.

First, though, I made a dox that could grasp a twig firmly without breaking it. I'd need that to use half the stuff I had asked for.

In spite of the other insanity I'd had to deal with, the simple fact that I'd be able to enjoy a part of Christmas gave me some reassurance that, ultimately, things would turn out okay.

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AN: I started writing this story in December 2016, give me some slack for having an early Christmas episode!

Also, Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

Honestly, what happened when I exited the dimension gate was something that I don't think anyone R.O.B. has ever dealt with before. I mean ,it's not everyday you receive that kind of surprise when you go somewhere.

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I started assembling the portal as soon as I got the schematics, but it took a long time to build. How was I supposed to know that it would take 12 hours to build the thing?

Still, that gave me time to open my gifts. Most were clothes, but a few were steam gift cards and video games, plus a copy of A Game of Thrones. I was looking forward to reading that book on my travels, but that isn't really important.

While the portal was still under construction, I started building as many fabbers as I could. I also built a few doxes and orbital units, in case I ended up in space when the portal opened. Soon, I had a small army ready for the portal. With nothing else to do, I decided to, for lack of better choice, go to sleep. I was still surprised that the commander had a sleep mode.

So, after giving my best wishes to my family, I powered down.

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When I awakened, I saw that the portal was almost finished. I decided to start moving my army toward it. I also mentally slapped myself after I realized that, since the portal was on the ground, I wouldn't be able to fit my orbital units inside of it. Oh well.

I examined the progress on it and noticed that I was 10 seconds from finishing.

I quickly started counting down, because I porbably wouldn't get another chance like this any time soon.

10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

"Dimension gate complete."

I looked at it for a moment as my army gathered behind me, then, stealing myself, charged through, my army quick to follow.

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After a short moment of teleportation, which somehow made me feel as though I was turned inside out, I found myself in a strange forest. THe trees looked recognizable.

As I moved around, I looked for sings of life. Maybe there was a sentient race nearby?

I soon found a quaint little city, with structures that were very familiar.

As I approached it, though, a group of airships approached me, armed with weapons that looked somewhat deadly and... familiar?

Somewhere, these designs registered as being unique, but not in a way that I knew.

Then, I saw a walker headed toward me, stop, and release a tiny reptilian being, who pointed some kind of device at me. I armed my weapons, but soon found it was some kind of scanner. I felt my body and processor being examined (which made me nervous), and started taking aim, but something kept me from firing.

Maybe it was the fact that I recognized the being, in a friendly sort of way.

Then I noticed that the being in question seemed to appear puzzled, before going stiff, then jumping into the air.

Then, suddenly, it signaled to me, on a channel that had no encryption. I answered, rather confused.

"Hello-" I began.

"Greeting, oh great and exalted one! We have long awaited your return!"

Wait, what?

"I'm sorry, but you must have me mistaken with another being."

"NO! YO ARE THE EXALTED ONE! THE ONE WHO RAISED US FROM A TINY CELL TO A MIGHTY CIVILIZATION! THE ONE WHO LEAD THE NAVEROSAURUS OFF OF TERMINITE AND TO THE STARS, TOWARD THE HEART OF THE GA:AXY! ONLY YOU DID THIS!"

I did? But how-

Wait.

Terminite. Naverosaurs. Heart of the galaxy. Tiny cell to galactic empire?!

Now I remembered where I knew these guys from.

I had led these beings to all of this.

For I had made.

They were my first great creations.

Back when I played Spore.........

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AN: Yes, the very first universe I'm visiting is the Spore Universe. You may praise or insult me as you see fit.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

Out of all the other commanders I met, I have yet to find one who had the luck I did with their first universe.

I mean, seriously, what are the odds of ending up in a universe where the first beings you encounter ae ones you made and guided from a single cell to a galactic empire?

Or that they formed a coalition with other races who you'd done the same toward to discover who made them?

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Even after overcoming the shock of realizing what these guys had said was true, I wasn't exactly sure how to respond to these guys actions. I was pretty sure that they would want me to join in feasts and parties, which seeing as I didn't have a body, would pose quite a few problems.

"Oh noble creator, how long we have waited for this day, at last, where we may meet you. We have prepared a feast in your honor, as well as many festivities. We hope that you will join in these festivities-"

"Well, that would be nice, but I'm afraid that I will not be able to do so at the moment."

"......Why, oh great and triumphant one?"

"Well, erm....."

"Did another being imprison you in the form that we now see before us?"

"....Yes, actually." How the hell did he know that?

"Ah. So it seems the zealous ones were right."

"...what?"

"Some of our philosophers have suggested that there are other beings like you, who they have said may be stronger than you. Though I wish they were incorrect, it appears that they are."

Okay, time to put on my god guise.

"....Well, sorry for confirming your fears. Anyways, the being that trapped me in this form has also robbed me of much of my power. All I am able to do this limited, though still powerful, form is create an army of robotic entities obedient to my will. While still impressive, it is only a fraction of my true potential."

"....ah, I see. Now, tell me, mighty one, is there any way we can help you regain your power and true form?"

Perfect.

"Indeed, there is. You see, the one who imprisoned me in this form is offered a way for me to not only regain my power, but even exceed my former limits. He says that I most travel across existence itself, to other universes, and improve the lives of those that I encounter. It appears that he decided this will be my first test."

"I understand. Well, then may we help you in completing this journey?"

"Yes, I would."

"Very well. What would like us to do first."

Uh oh. I hadn't thought of that.

Then I realized there was one thing I really did want. One thing that would be really easy for them to provide me with, assuming they had all of the normal Spore tech on hand.

"Would you provide me with a genetic engineering facility? I would like to assume a form able to... interact with you more freely."

"....Very well. Would you like to join the festivities we have planned for your arrival?"

"Yes, okay. Though, I assume there will be some time needed to prepare them?"

"Yes, indeed. We must also inform the others of your arrival."

"Yeah, sure... wait, others?"

"Yes. We are aware that you also guided other races to the stars, such as the gralos and draconians. They desire to meet with you as well and will be overjoyed with this discovery.

They know that?!

"AH, well, sure. Let them kow that I have arrived. I hope that they share your happiness with my arrival."

"It is likely. So, do you have any other requests for the moment?"

"......Just one: what is your name?"

"....AH. I never told you that, and had forgotten that, with you limited powers, you may not be able to use your mind to determine it. You may call me Tylos."

"Good to know, Tylos. Tell those who have awaited my arrival that I am here, but tell them not to try to talk with me, for I need time preparing mortal form."

"Very well, great one. I will execute your will."

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After that, things went on more smoothly. I was easily able to link up to a lab in the capital city and start working on a physical body.

While being a giant killer robot was cool, I really missed all of the senses a fleshy body had.

I still wasn't sure what to do about the festivities, nor was I sure how to fix this universe.

Then I remembered what guarded the galactic core. Along with what was at the core.

Well, that was a starting point.

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AN: I'm not dead!

This story is going to be way behind the versions on Spacebattles and Sufficient Velocity for at least a few days, so sorry about that.

Anyway, Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

Well, I couldn't help but feel rather awkward in the presence of my creations.

Even after the initial encounter, things were...weird with them.

See, while having a bunch of followers that will be completely loyal to you sounds cool, but when you actually have servants who would die on command for you out of loyalty, you really end up caring for them. Not that they minded.

I can't believe that I actually found some that were both loyal and willing to tell me when I was wrong, but that was beside the point.

Anyways, back to making my body.

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I'm not ashamed to say that I missed the feelings that came with an organic body, even if it was vulnerable to many things that a machine could easily resist. I think I would have gone insane if I was in the Xenosentry forever.

But, first, I had to grow one.

Luckily, I was in the one universe where you could easily create everything.

I wasn't sure what to go with, at first. Should I go with one of the alien creatures I designed? Should I choose my normal human form? Maybe a new form made from the spore editors?

Eventually, I decided on a fourth option: go human, but not like my normal body.

Well, I used my normal body as a base, then I added in some unique traits: hair color that was impossible for humans (Black with red and blue), bioluminescent patches like the Na'vi, and a few stripes for good measure.

I also made sure to order a bunch of fabric to make into clothes, because I didn't want a draft between my legs. I'm pretty sure it would also have turned my followers into an empire of nudists.

As I waited for my body to grow (it turned out that this would take a few hours), I decided to check up on my followers.

I think I almost had a heart attack when I learned what had happened.

IT turned out that every single sapient race I'd created in Spore had become an Empire in this universe. Apparently, they'd met each other and united as allies; in some cases, after nearly going to the brink of war. This gave me an empire of well over a dozen races to work with, with at least one example of each archetype in this federation. These guys had been united by one goal: find me.

Now, I'm not going to describe what these races looked like; they're already in a set of spore casts that I'd made a while ago, and you would save yourself a fair amount of time by just looking at them.

Any ways, these guys were from pretty much every single part of the morality spectrum: diplomats, entertainers, eco-nuts, warmongers, zealots, EVERYTHING. The only archetype not present was the Wander, which required you to start in the space age, which I never did (everyone needed a history, and starting in the space age leaves you without any nice bonuses to use). Somehow, though, they'd united to find me.

Well, better make sure they stay together.

Anyways, back to body building.

With my host body underway, I started adding in cybernetics: skeletal reinforcement, backup nerves, and a neural link to my commander chassis. If it weren't for the fact that there was a bots part pack released for Spore, I'd have been surprised I could add cyborg parts. Luckily, I wasn't.

Anyways, by the time my body was finished growing, I also had several set of clothes ready for it. I decided to try out a fashionable suit that I'd ordered, because party. It fit well, along with a set of shoes and socks I'd also ordered. Once everything was ready, I decided to make my grand entrance.

To say my followers were shocked by my appearance was an understatement. I think some of them were going to have heart attacks.

So, to ease things, I decided to speak.

"Thank you for waiting for me."

Then everyone exploded into applause and worship.

I wondered what I was supposed to do at the party. Then I realized it was New Years back home. So, I did the one things I could do:

Enjoy the celebrations!

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In case it wasn't obvious, this version of the story is VERY out of date.

That being said, Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

Well, I wont deny it, the party was truly awesome. But overall, it felt somewhat unfulfilling.

I guess this was because there wasn't anyone I knew who was in attendance. I might have been the certain of attention (a first for me), but I didn't really have anyone who I could relate to, which took out some of the fun of the party. Oh well.

But then, after the festivities ended (and I recovered from the ensuing hangover), I got to dig my hands...err, machine arms, into the Spore tech available to me.

And oh man, was it awesome.

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I found my commander within the starship I'd made for the Naverosaurs. It wasn't really aerodynamic, but it didn't really need to be, seeing how it was able to fly anyways. So, there's a plus.

Then, I started examining the tech inside, as well as all the tech my loyal subjects had acquired. It rounded to quite literally EVERYTHING in Spore.... well, except for that thing in the center of the galaxy.....

Anyhow, back to examining the contents of my races' technologies: I started with the weapons: they were at the highest level, so most of them exceeded any equivalent tech I had in some way, but a few had a trade-off to counter this benefit: mega laser was more powerful but used up more power, bombs took longer to rebuild but had a bigger blast, etc.

What really got my attention was the Terraforming tech: this stuff was incredibly over powered, even by other games' standards. System that creates an atmosphere out of only electrical energy, violating the law of conservation of mass? Check. System that can utterly OBLITERATE matter with no questions accessed, also violating the afromentioned law? Check. System that can return the core of a planet to a molten state after said core completely cools down and solidifies? CHECK. Oh man, this stuff was awesome.

I quickly downloaded all of it into my databanks, and started seeing if I could make any improvements to them as well. Already, I could optimize their power consumption, mitigating their drain on my systems.

Then, I decided to pull up my starship's schematics and see what I could improve.

To say I was surprised by how big it was a colossal understatement.

This ship had an interior that was as big as a planet.

How the hell was that possible?

Well, it would explain how it was able to store a colony incredi-pack inside..... along will all of the buildings it could deploy.... and the uber turret......

In hindsight, the colossal interior actually makes sense.

Moving on, the first thing that I noticed was that the starship had much bigger hallways than expected. My commander could walkthrough them no problem. According to the logs, they'd been added recently, three hours after my arrival had gone public. Guess that they wanted to allow my commander to be able to use the ship. How thoughtful.

I wouldn't be lying when I said that the ship's main systems occupied areas the size of cities. Though, considering the size of the ship, it was reasonable. Still, there was plenty of room to improve.

As it turned out, my commander was not restricted to Tier 1 equipment: it could build anything from PA and the Titans Expansion. Seizing the opportunity, I started adding in a few T2 powerplants to the reactor room, so that I would no longer have to rely on fuel.

Next step was the hanger. Yes, my ship had a hanger. Well, it had to launc the Uber turret from somewhere, okay?! The hander itself was quite large, even if the entrance was only big enough for a realtively small starship to come out. That might explain why they launched most of the buildings as missiles. Odd.

Back on track, I added an advanced orbital factory to the hanger (which ate up hardly any room) and used it to make orbital fabbers. I also built an air factory inside to make aerial fabbers. I didn't want to retreat when my people view me as a god, so I decided that this thing would need to have some way to repair itself. Now, that was done.

Finally, I decided to make the starship more..... personable: I added in a bunch of decorations, all from the city planner, to a special set of living quarters made for the ship's captain. Was I was finished, I decided on one final course of action: set a jump to coordinate's (0,0) from galactic core.

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Because seriously, I'm going to meet the Grox sooner or later, so I might as well do it on my terms.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

I'd love to say that, when I flew into the center of the galaxy, I only needed one ship to punch through the mighty navy of the Grox and purge them from existence.

That would be wrong.

VERY WRONG.

Look, the Grox have an empire of WAY MORE than 100 worlds. There would be NO WAY I'd beat them on my own.

Fortunately, I wasn't alone.

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On my way to the galactic center, I stopped a couple of times to set up bases on uninhabited planets. None of them had any life forms on them higher than bacteria, which meant I wouldn't have to worry about screwing up the ecosystem with my industry (because I could care less about alien pond scum at the moment).

On each planet, after I got some extractors and generators set up, I made sure to put in some orbital factories and fabbers, and started building as many orbital fighters as I could. I toyed around with setting up some bots, but that was pointless, really: I'd probably be unable to land them before the Grox were dead.

One I'd set up enough bases for my liking, I continued to the galactic center, followed by my machines and loyal followers. The overall size of our fleet was somewhere in the 10,000+ range and growing by the minute.

We hopped across stars, and even travelled through a black hole.

Then, finally, we found our target.

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I stared at the ship before me. It was unlike anything I'd ever made before, and was something that had annoyed me since the first days I'd been in the Space Phase in Spore.

And now it was hailing me.

As I prepared to answer, I looked at all of the captains of the star ships that had been following me. My followers looked scared, and I couldn't blame them. I'd already told them what I planned to do, but even with my 'almighty' power, they were still terrified. This was the Grox, after all. Thiese guys could destroy other empires easily.

But not this one.

Finally, I answered the Grox's hail. I was treated to the rather unpleasant sight of a diminutive cyborg staring at me.

"You are in violation of our space. You have pressed too deep into our exclusion zone and have not heeded our hails. If you had, perhaps I would have let you live, but now, you leave me no choice. Have you any last words?" he said, powering up his weapons a he did so.

Luckily, mine were already armed.

"Yes. DIE!"

The minute I said that, an antimatter missile left my ship and flew straight toward him. He'd actually been surprised to see my response, so much so that he hadn't noticed the antimatter missile. The moment he did, he tried to order his men to take evasive action. Too late, though. As his ship started to turn, the antimatter missile hit it, engulfing both of them in a giant orb of light. When things became visible again, all that was left of the ship were a few pieces of wreckage.

To say my followers were surprised was an understatement. Pretty much all of them were reduced to blubbering messes by the sight of me turning a Grox ship into scrap. Which, considering I just hit it with a missile made of ANTIMATTER, wasn't all that surprising.

As my companions tried to regain their composure, I turned my attention to a nearby planet. According to my sensors, the Grox had sent a warning signal to that world, telling them to alert their main fleet and prepare for war. All things considered, by the time I reached the planet, they'd have already sent it out. Destroying the colony would not stop the signal.

But I REALLY wanted to pay them back for being so hard to beat in Spore.

So, I flew my ship over to their world. I briefly ran through all of the options I had for destroying the colony:

Planet Buster: Overkill, plus not satisfying enough.

Bombing: Too inefficient

Lasers: Too Inefficient.

Missiles: Too Inefficient.

Terraforming: .........Oh yes.

According to my biosphere detector, the planet was too hot to maintain life, OF ANY KIND. I mean, the planet was hotter than Venus, and my ship was starting to cook over in it.

So, I did the obvious thing and activated my air conditioning.

One that worked on a PLANET-WIDE SCALE.

Instantly, the effects wee visible: rain clouds began to form, while some of the molten lava oceans began to harden. Soon, rain began to fall, turning the lava seas into oceans.

Slowly, the world began to come to life.

And all the while, the Grox began to die.

Anyone who has played Spore and met the Grox will know that, should they be put in your cargo hold, they'll die, because the cargo hold is too toxic for them. That's why the live on uninhabitable planets: they will die otherwise.

Well, I got to see it first hand, and it was, well, weird.

When Grox are put in a 'habitable' environment, they don't run around screaming, explode, or melt. They just, well, disintegrate. The minute breathable air hits them, they turn to dust. And it's not just them, either: their buildings, their vehicles, EVERYTHING that they just became huge piles of dust. By the time my terraforming was done, the world was barely inhabitable and there was no trace of the Grox except for huge piles of dust, which were swiftly scattered by the wind.

I decided to try and make things permanent by putting some life forms on planet: a few plants and animals. I had enough to set up a few breeding populations, so I was pretty sure they'd do well. Hopefully. Then I put an Uber Turret up, to keep the Grox away.

I looked at my hard work. In the span of according to my ship clock, 30 minutes, I'd terraformed a world and totally wiped out two cities. Oddly, I actually felt proud about that. I guess I really hated the Grox. Yeah, that was it.

With the planet safe for the moment, I turned my thoughts to the center of the galaxy. Now that I'd destroyed one of their colonies, the Grox would seek retribution.

Well, bring it on, robo-freaks. I'm ready for you.

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Indeed, I WAS ready for THEM. What happened afterwards, though... Well, let's just say it was important. REALLY IMPORTANT.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

I know people will probably say that my xenocide of the Grox was bad, and that the fact I enjoyed it made me a monster.

They're wrong. The Grox deserved it. Big time.

But, I have to say, they had nice tech to work with.

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After I destroyed the first Grox colony, I started making headway toward the Galactic Center. Now that they had a reason to fear me, they weren't going to pull any punches.

Well, neither was I.

Whenever I came across a planet the Grox inhabited, I terraformed it. Worlds covered in ice began to thaw, volcanic planets saw the arrival of oceans, planets with low atmosphere's experienced rain for the first time in centuries, and worlds with atmosphere's that made Venus' look thin saw the sun for the first time ever.

And on each of these worlds, millions of cybernetic beings faded into nothingness.

Do you ever wonder how it feels to annihilate a race? To see every last one of their kind fall over and die? To see the brokenness in their eyes as they realize this is the end?

Well, when the race in question are cruel jerks who want to kill everyone, it feels pretty awesome.

Unfortunately, it meant I couldn't access their shinies.

At least, not at first.

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Spore spaceships are fast. As in, fast enough to travel several hundred light years in a few hours.

Combined with my massive supply of Progenitor tech, it let me perform feats that were practically unimaginable.

Namely, dismantling an interstellar empire in about a week.

After only 6 days, I'd managed to reduce the Grox down to just thirteen systems, which would probably take me about an hour to destroy.

Oddly, I hadn't encountered too much resistance. Though, all things considered, they were probably just holing up in their core systems to make a last stand. You know, super zerg rush?

Of course, that just gave me time to reduce their number of remaining systems down to twelve.

The system I happened upon was, at first glance, nothing special. Just your average colony on a world that should be completely uninhabitable to all forms of life (including tardigrades, apparently).

When I got near it, though, I started getting some weird transmissions from a ship orbiting it. Their planetary guard, I assumed. I decided to see if scanning it would help out. I hadn't really used the scanner on my ship yet, so this was its first test.

What happened pretty much blew my mind away.

The minute the scanner hit the ship, a huge amount of data suddenly started downloading into my hard drives. At first, I thought it was just details on the communications, but when I examined it, well, it was more than that. Much more: schematics for buildings, vehicles, starships and the like, plus biometrics for four different organisms (the ground troops the Grox used in one of the Adventures, if I remembered correctly). Most surprising of all, though, were the designs for a self repair system.

As in, the Grox's game-breakingly powerful repair abilities that are coded as unlimited mega repair packs.

My response to this:.......SWEET!

Anyways, a few minutes, 3 comets, 1 drought generator and a crap-ton of missiles and bombs later, the Grox presence was gone from the system.

Now, I could turn my thoughts toward the center of the galaxy, and with it, my final challenge.

Soon, I would be victorious. Soo, the Grox would be gone. Soon, I would have completed one universe and be able to move on to next.

It made me feel very happy.

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Looking back, that happiness was the calm before the storm, before I fought the Grox......

Before it happened......

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AN: Read and Review. This is Flameal15k, signing off.

 

[Flameal15k]

Well, this was it. This was the day.

This was the end of the Grox.

No backing down now, no running, no, it was time to stand and fight.

Part of me wondered why I was thinking this over when annihilating the Grox would be a trivial task for me. The answer I got was that I just felt like it.

Oh well.

Well, anyways, I think that I should probably be getting to the battle.

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When I started attacking their last dozen systems, the Grox finally started fighting back: squads of spaceships would try to mob mine in an effort to destroy through sheer numbers, since I totally outclassed them in terms of firepower.

You think they'd realize that the strategy they were using would only work on an opponent that had a limited amount of ammunition, which was not a problem for me.

The end result was that they were down to one system in about 45 minutes. Seriously, Spore terraforming tech is OP. No nerfing, please.

I was expecting that they'd have one last force left to defend their home system, in a final, desperate stand against me. After all, that's what people usually do if their opponents won't let them surrender.

That being said, I was surprised by what I found there.

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I was in approaching the outer edges of the Grox home star (Bilfang, according to my Sporepedia). The grox inhabited all four of the planets here: Perchush, Mal-ti, Seudun, and, finally, their homeworld, Nan-Qur. Weird names, I know.

According to my SETI device, they had a good 20 ships in system. That was more than I'd ever fought, but nothing I couldn't manage. After all, I had at least 200 fighters with me, so numbers wasn't much of an issue. And since the Grox had no technology they could give me, I wasn't going to pull any punches.

Also, there were a lot of strange objects orbiting the Grox worlds. They were metal in nature, but I couldn't find any energy signatures coming from them, so I ignored them.

Then, to my surprise, the Grox hailed me.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"We demand you surrender."

"Really?"

"Yes. You have proven stronger than any foe that we have faced before, but we will overcome you."

"Yeah, how? I just destroyed your entire empire. Easily."

"A little too easily, don't you think?"

"I..huh?"

"You didn't encounter any resistance surrounding most of our colonies. Don't you find it suspicious. After all, any empire that has last more than a few decades will guard its borders against threats. Yet you faced only tangential resistance."

"....Your point, cyborg demon?"

"Surrender.."

"NO."

"Very well. All ships, prepare for battle."

Just then, my sensors flooded with enemy signals. Suddenly, 20 had gone up to 2000.

But how...

I checked my earlier sensors readings, specifically those about the metal objects orbiting the planet. Then I cross referenced them with the new ships.

The results were conclusive: the metal objects had been grox ships. Apparently, they'd turned off all systems except communications.

Clever little aliens.

Anyways, things got crazy from there. While my followers panicked, I sent every ship I had at the Grox, and opened fire with my own. Numbers advantage or not, I still outclassed them in the firepower department, and had way better range. Before they were in range of my fighters, I'd already halved their numbers.

After that, well, that was a fairly epic battle.

The fighters I had were maneuverable enough that they were able to avoid the initial missile barrage from the Grox ships, at which point the fighting began in earnest. Here's where a big issue of the spore ships came into play: see, spore ships are mostly meant for fighting enemies head on, with ships clustering together and battling in a disorganized mob. Against other ships in the Spore universe, it works fine, but not against ships designed for dog fights, like my hornet fighters.

Because of this, they managed to take out a tenth of the defense fleet on their own, with only 3 casualties.

Then, the Grox got serious.

Since the couldn't out maneuver my ships, they decided to split into smaller groups and gang up on individual fighters. This actually worked, because it nullified the fighters speed and maneuverability advantages, allowing the more robust Grox ships to gain an advantage. I lost 10 fighters in that phase of the battle, with the Grox only losing 30.

Ok, time to end this.

I launched my flagship at the Grox, aiming at any ship I could find. My weapons were able to literally shred through most of the ships I encountered, with only a few resisting the onslaught of death for a few precious seconds before joining their brethren in oblivion. At one point, 10 ships actually decided to bail out, only to be hit with a barrage of antimatter missiles.

I was not going to let the Grox have the chance to return to haunt me in the future.

Approximately 13 minutes after the fighting had started, the last Grox ship was reduced to a burning pile of scrap, which my starship breezed past, looting the valuable spice and sporebucks it had once contained.

From there, I set about annihilating the last of the Grox: A frozen world was bombarded with meteorites until the ice fields became oceans. A lava planet saw a comet fill it with water. I literally drained the atmosphere out of one world until the sun started shining, with the Grox dying as the light hit them.

Finally, when I arrived at their homeworld, I activated my atmosphere generator and started pumping.

A final transmission came out from the leader of the Grox.

"WHY DO YOU OPPOSE US?! WHY DO YOU SEEK TO MURDER US?"

My reply was simple, but very, very true.

"You have only caused trouble for my creations. I want it to end. Now be gone."

As I said this, the Grox leader disintegrated before my eyes, which was actually less disgusting than I thought it'd be, while lightning cracked across the sky. The minute I finished my remark, it began to rain.

As the first drops fell, the Grox's buildings began to shake. Then, one by one, they crumpled over and collapsed, turning into huge piles of dust and rubble. Joining them were the Grox's machinery, which had fallen silent with the deaths of their pilots. A few planes actually fell out of the sky, only to turn into dust when they hit the ground.

For a moment, the entire world was littered with dust and rubble. Then, slowly, the rains moved the dust away, washing away all evidence that the Grox had ever existed. Even the rubble of the buildings was washed away, leaving no trace of their existence.

To my surprise, the plants that I put on planet to ensure the Grox didn't come back sprouted instantly, quickly overtaking the rubble that the rain couldn't move. Soon, all of the remaining rubble was covered, as if it had never existed. It was as if nature was wiping away a bad stay and starting over.

I took one more moment to enjoy the fruits of my labor, then I prepared to leave.

At that moment, my sensors picked up something strange coming from a pile of rubble at the center of what used to be one o the Grox's cities. According to the records I'd got from the scanner, this used to be their capital city, Mulos. Weird name if you ask me.

I used the abduction tool to move the rubble until I found the source of the signal: some kind of weird box.

I had no idea what was in it: a superweapon? The ultimate question, which 42 was the answer to (wait, already knew that)? An eldritch abomination?

Part of me thought about throwing it away, but that thought was soon quashed. If this was something, I was not going to pass it up, and if it was something bad, I think it needed a better storage place, where fools could not open it by accident.

So, I quickly moved it into my cargo hold. Then, I got ready to leave.

Before I did, though, I decided to do one last thing: put a wildlife preserve marker on this planet, then fill it with a bunch of species.

Because what better way to rub in your victory over the enemies of all life then by making their home world a shelter for all living things?

With that done, I set my sights on the Galactic Core. Steve, here I come.

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Looking back, I can't believe things started out with something as simple as taking a box with me. It seems so trivial compared to the rest of the things I've done.

But seriously, I think that moment was the one where things went different for me.

If you say that was destiny, shove it. I've had beings that can see the future flat out tell me they didn't see this happen; hell, ROB told me this was something it didn't see coming. As far as they are concerned, I don't have any destiny except the one I make for myself.

But if there was such a thing as destiny, then I think that taking that box altered it forever.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

Ah, Steve.

He was one of the nicer beings I met on my travels. I can't say he was perfect, what with his cryptic references, but nobody's perfect.

At least, nobody who is interesting......

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After collecting the box from the ruins of the Mulos, I continued toward the galactic core. With no resistance on the way there, it was an uneventful journey.

As we approached the core, my loyal followers were curious at where we were heading.

"Oh great one, why do you seek the core?" asked Tylos. "Is there something here that will help you reclaim your powers?"

"...Yes, but there is also someone I'd like to meet there. Now please, be patient and let me finish this."

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Eventually, we reached the core. I started scanning around to see if I could find Steve. I didn't end up finding anything, though considering the fact that the core made my sensors go haywire, this wasn't very surprising.

"Greeting, my friend!"

Speak of the devil. The minute the speaking started, my ship was caught in the pull of the galactic core. My followers became worried, but I told them not to worry: we weren't in danger."

"You've travelled far to get here, and overcome many obstacles."

Yeah, yeah, get on with it.

"Which is amazing, considering where you were only a short time ago."

Yeah ye-WAIT WHAT?

"You know, many like you don't make it this far. Some face threats that superior firepower cannot solve. Others lose themselves to the power they've been granted. And quite a few had the bad luck of meeting them....

Who?

"But you've managed to avoid those pitfalls. What happens now, well, I can't say, because I don't know. Maybe you'll rise to legend, that will slowly fade to myth. Maybe you will return home, to return to the rather dull life you had. If you're really unlucky, you might fall to them, and face the doom of being forgotten by all but your family...."

WHO THE HELL ARE THEM!?

"But you've made it this far and that's pretty impressive. So, I offer you a gift to help you in your travels. One that I believe you very much desire."

At this point, we'd finished our voyage, which Steve took as his queue to appear. The ufo was oddly comical to look at, considering it was based on the SimCity 2000 UFO.

"Nice spaceship. You must have enjoyed designing it."

"Yes I did."

"Well, I respect That. By the way, you should be receiving my gift now."

Indeed, the staff of light had appeared in my cargo hold. Probably needed to be installed in some place before it could be used properly.

"Well, now, I have to go. I hope you achieve whatever goals you have and don't lose sight of who you are."

"Thanks," I responded, not really sure how to take this statement.

"Oh, and one more thing," replied Steve.

"Yes?"

"............ Good luck, **** *********."

"......."

"......"

"......"

".......... How do you...?"

"Know your real name? Well, I think the best way that I could be described is as a Random Omnipotent Being. I'm different from the one who sent you here, before you get angry. I can't say I'm happy with how my.... peer acted, but it's not my place to act.

"Anyways, good luck."

With that, Steve disappeared, leaving me and my followers alone in the void for a moment, before some kind of portal appeared and took usback to the edge of the galactic core.

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After I recovered from my shock of meeting another ROB, I decided to head back to my origin system. First, though, I made a detour to earth, terraformed it to T3, and made it a wildlife preserve.

Then I headed to Terminite and held an epic celebration. As cool as it was, I don't really believe it needs describing.

Then, finally, I built a dimension gate, and headed back to hub.

Now, it was time to examine the Grox Box, as I'd taken to calling it.

The results were.... rather unsettling.

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AN: Owing to a suggestion on Spacebattles, STEVE stands for Space Time Entity of Vacuum Energy. It's also his real first name.

So, Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

Well, here we are.

This is it.

This is where things..... well, changed.

Well, not really, but if I had a chance to go back to this point in time, really would've taken what happened more seriously. Because if I did, and hadn't tried to ignore it out of fear and confusion, well, things might be different. But those are things I can only ponder now.

So, here's what happened.

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After I returned to my hub, I placed the box on the ground, transferred back into my commander body, and started examining it with some doxes. I wanted to see all of the details before I scanned it, in case it ended up destroying the box. This revealed a bunch of strange markings on it, but nothing more.

Okay, time to analyze.

During the party, I had added a scanner to my commander, which I activated and started scanning the box. According to the preliminary findings from the scan, it was made primarily of titanium, with trace amounts of other materials, including a rather large amount of Gallium.

It was also emitting energy in pulses that were getting...... stronger?

Suddenly, the box start shaking. The doxes I'd sent to look it over were ordered to back off, but some got hit by the box and sent flying away. As I tried to gather more information on the box, it suddenly began levitating into the air. WTF?!

Now the box had stopped shaking, instead it was spinning around like a top. As I prepared my weapons systems, a line of light formed at the top of the box, which soon formed several edges along the top of the box.

Just as I was getting ready to fire, the box opened along the lines, with a stange object floating out of it. I'm not really sure how to describe it, except that it appeared to have crystals in it.

As I was wondering what it would do, the object shot out a beam of light at me. According to my sensors, it was some kind of scanner. The object that I had been scanning was now scanning me.

Okay, time to shoot it down.

Then, suddnely, the object made some kind of roaring noise as a shockwave of red light shot out from it.

The shockwave took only a couple of seconds to hit me.

Then everything went black.

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When I came to, I was in the middle of a pile of rubble, with fires burning around me. I heard some anguished sounds in the distance, so I assumed that there were some animals that were trying to escape the fire. I sighed then I put my head in my hands.

Wait. I had been in my commander body. I didn't have hands or a head at the moment.

Suddenly, I heard people screaming. I turned my head and saw people running toward me. Some were human, but others were not: I could make out what looked like an Elf and a ..... hanar(?) among the crowd.

Okay, having a bad dream, wake up please.

Just then, I saw a small piece of debris fly past me. It nicked me on the shoulder, which stung quite a bit.

Wait, you can't feel pain in dreams.

Which means this is real.

....OH SHIT, RUN!

I started running, Justin time to avoid being trampled by the crowd. While they managed to overtake me, I avoid death by panicked civilians.

Then, I heard something behind me. It sound like a high pitched whine.

Turning, I saw some kind of giant machine, with crab like legs.

And it was charging a weapon of some sort.

Panicking, I looked for a way out of the crowd. I noticed an alley way and dived into it as soon as possible.

Just in time, too. The minute I got to safety, a huge beam of light traveled through the crowd, reducing them to ash.

Then, I heard the sounds of metal footsteps, growing every closer.

I hid behind a dumpster, trying to make myself look smaller. I noticed a discarded box nearby and put it overtop of me, desperate for any form of shelter.

Soon, the foot steps stopped. Then, As I wonder what would happen, I saw a tendril pass with a light at its end pass by me, looking for people. It looked right at me, making me glad that I could only see it through a set of tiny holes in the box. The light soon lost interest and left , as did its body.

Once I felt safe, I exited my hiding spot and tried to get some feel of the situation. I used the dumbster to reach the roof of a building, then observed the rest of y surroundings.

And they weren't pretty: Fire was everywhere, while more machines, some ground based, some flying, were attacking targets everywhere. In the distance, an absolutely colossal machine was engaged in battle, one it was clearly winning.

And the bodies: so many bodies. I could see them piled in nearby allies, in very sates of intactness. Men, women, children, it didn't matter: all were united in death.

Most terrifying of all, though, were the creatures: monsters that made chaos spawn look well made, these things were hunting people down, killing them, and EATING THEM. And some weren't exactly interested in the first two. And then there were some that were pinning people down and...... ugh.

Then, a plane passed overhead and dropped something. I watched the object fall and was almost blinded by the flash of the explosion.

The shockwave of which was headed right at me.

Panicking, I looked for shelter and noticed an open sewer point. Hastily, I ran in, taking pains to cover the surface, trapping me in darkness. A few moments later, My world was illuminated by a ring of light around the entrance to the sewers. Then, once again, I was in darkness.

Then, suddenly, A source of light appeared. IT resembled a huge mass of red lightning.

Then, it SPOKE.

"It is done. They have won."

Huh?

"I have hidden us away, scattered us across reality. Hopefully, someone shall find us, unite us once more, learn our secrets and oppose them."

What?

"Now, though, I must rest."

Then, the lightning disappeared, leaving me alone once more.

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[WARNING: SYSTEMS_OFFLINE]

[REBOOTING]

[REBOOTING]

[REBOOT: SUCESSFUL]

[REACTIVATING: CMDR_FLAMEAL15K]

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"........ne?!"

Huh?

"........at one?!"

What?

"GREAT ONE! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"

Finally coming to my senses, I took a moment to look around. I was back in my commander body again. A quick examination of my internal clock revealed I'd been out for 10 minutes.

Okay, I'd been out for 10 minutes. BUT WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST SEE?

"Great One!"

"I'm fine," I said. Tylos seemed to calm down after that, if only marginally. I couldn't blame him: the poor guy had just seen his god feint and didn't know what to do.

"Okay. Is there anything I can get for you?"

"I'm sorry, but no."

"Okay..... um, someone came here and gave me something."

".....What?"

"Yeah, um, well, your eminence, they said it was for your eyes only. I don't know how they got here. According to them, it was 'a perk of being a friend of ROB."

"......................................Can you show me what they gave you?"

"Of course."

With that, he presented me a large box. According to my scanners, it was a container for several other boxes and bags, which, in turn, each contained an object within them.

What could they possibly... oh.

I checked the relative amount of time I'd been in the commander chassis. Then I matched it up with the date I'd been abducted from home.

Yep. It was that day.

"Thank you for watching over this, Tylos."

"Of course, my lord."

"Yes, well... you know my early comment? Rescind it. There is something you can get for me."

"And what is that?"

"A cake and 19 candles."

"Of course, sire."

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That may have mostly been a distraction to let me focus on what I'd seen, but there were times that being in a place where no one really knows you sucks.

 

[Flameal15k]

You know, even though ROB eventually turned out to be MUCH nicer than I expected (and I'll leave it at that for now), it still took me a long time to forgive ROB for abducting and trapping me in a commander, even if it turned out to give me a lot of cool powers.

The biggest one was the time I got abducted.

There's six big reasons for that:

1. It was Winter Break, and I wanted to enjoy that time while it lasted.

2. It was a few days before Christmas, which should always be spent with family.

3. I missed spending New Year's Day with my family.

4. I missed the chance to go Javelina hunting with my dad.

5. I missed out on running a marathon I paid quite a bit to run in.

6. Well........

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I looked at the cake before me. It was vanilla, with a little chocolate on the inside and some ice cream on the outside. Nineteen candles adorned it, unlit at the moment. A few seconds and a lighter later, and they were burning bright.

I sighed.

"Happy Birthday to me."

"Happy Birthday to me."

"Happy Birthday, dear ****."

"Happy Birthday to me...."

Then I blew out the candles. I'd already thought of my wish, but it was one unlikely to come true unless I worked toward it.

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Yeah.

Because of ROB, I missed my own birthday.

I opened up all of the presents, but most were hardly of any use. About the only one I had any use for was a Game of Thrones Shirt. Winter is Coming, all hail the king in the North. I'd really liked that show, but I wasn't in the mood to think about it now.

Of course, as much as I wanted to wallow in my own self pity, I decided against it. It was childish, and anyways, if I didn't act, I'd never get home.

I wasn't in the mood to try and go anywhere else, though, so instead I decided to see what I could do with the incredibly broken Spore technology I had.

First task: populating my hub system.

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Besides my home planet, there were roughly a dozen planets in orbit of the star that acted as the center of my hub world, which were all somehow capable of sustain life. Go figure.

The five main ones each one biome that dominated their surfaces: crystalline mountains with springs, which appeared mostly blue to me; dusky forests and swamplands; Tundra with the occasional steppe plains caused by volcanoes; verdant fields and rainforest; and deserts that, oddly, seemed to be highly metallic in composition.

Somehow, I knew this would be important later.

The problem was, unlike my hub planet, these didn't have any living things on them, barring a few plants. It was a miracle that they were still functioning without suffering ecosystem collapse.

Probably ROB's doing.

Anyways, I set about rectifying this immediately.

First, I designed creatures for crystalline world. Surprisingly, it hard large oceans, with most of the inhabitable land masses being islands and mountain ranges. Fittingly, I decided most creatures their would have fins and gills, as well as other adaptations gilled towards aquatic life.

Now, normally, you'd need a very good understanding of life to understand how to artificially create organisms that can survive in any given environment without dying horribly from things like genetic degradation. Spore tech eliminated that problem.

Next was the planet of swamps and dark forests: Here, I mostly focused on insectoid creatures, with the occasional mammalian or reptilian beast to round them out. After all, bugs are the best at hiding in dark places, aren't they?

Then came the planet of jungles and plains. More bug creatures here, but also more reptiles, and a crapload of mammals. After all, mammal do quite well in jungles, don't they?

Then came the planet of tundra. Here, I added in mostly mammals, but there were also a few reptilian beasts. Needed to keep people guessing if they invaded, right?

Finally, on to the planet of metallic deserts and peaks. Here, I went wild and designed whatever I wanted. The creatures here were extremely varied, to the point their wasn't really any theme among them. Oh well.

Finally, I designed a few creatures for my hub world. These would be my vanguard against any foes I faced, at least until I could come up with better machines to supplant them. Until then, they would guard my home world.

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I also took the time to examine the cultures of my followers. They were a lot more detailed than I'd thought, but I'll save you the details and just give the overview.

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First off were the Naverosaurs: dinosaur like creatures, they were ecologists and treasured life above all else.

Next were the Croge. Warriors exemplar, these beings had formed the backbone of the armies by followers had created for their alliance.

Then came the Draconians: A race of draconic beings, they were, ironically, knights who fought to uphold the concepts of chivalry, but understood when their oaths must be disregarded to do what was right.

Fourth were the Calneerians: a civilization of shamans, they would slumber until they felt it was time to act. They'd been in hibernation for 20 years when the Naverosaurs found them.

Fifth were the Ixli: a group of scientists, these insectoids had a biologically defined cate system, but their was room to switch between castes, albeit with much difficulty.

Sixth were the Lumar: A race of weasel like creatures, they were concerned with making themselves as wealthy as possible. When people they cared about were in harm's way, though, wealth would be ignored to do what was right.

Seventh were the T'shana: A race of diplomats, theseavians had learned to unite together to solve their problems, and preferred peace if possible.

Eighth were the Altheema: These simian creatures spent their days amusing others, trying to have fun more than wrok. They still did very well when they did actually do work, though.

Ninth were Zelmite: religious beings to the core, they fought fiercely in the name of their gods, myself and spode (Who the claimed had created other, lesser gods to carry out his will. Whatever).

There were a lot more than those nine, but they made up the biggest portion of my followers.

And I was proud of how far they'd come one their own. Sure, I'd designed all of them, but these guys were able to, without my guidance, unify together with one goal in mind: find me, their creator. In a universe where any two civilizations would fight over some trivial things, these civilizations unified to find the one who made them, and ultimately succeeded.

And, for me, that was a better birthday gift than anything money could buy.

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You know, I'm actually surprised that ROB never took the chance to ruin my birthday more than it already was.

Maybe it was personal standards?

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AN: Today is not my birthday. That will be slightly more than a month after this chapter is posted.

Any ways, please Read and Review. This is Flameal15k, signing off.

 

[Flameal15k]

"Well, what happened here?"

In a large, oval shaped room, a figure stared at a table. Above the table, a hologram appeared, displaying a picture of a four legged robot, staring down at a box.

The figure was..... difficult to describe. Their body was slim, but not necessarily in a feminine way. It was best described as androgynous. It was also covered in armor, which served to further hide the identity of the being beneath it. A strange helmet adorned its head, with a single eye in the front. Said eye was focusing on the image before it, expanding to take in all it could.

"So, how goes your experiment," said a calm voice.

After waiting a moment, the figured turned around. Behind it was a man in a white suit. Oddly, the doors in the room were still closed, as though he had merely appeared inside of it.

"Good, but it is still rather slow. I am patient, though," it responded. Its voice sounded as if a hundred voices spoke together, further hiding just wait lay beneath the helmet and armor."

"Ah, I see."

"Thank you..... So, how goes your search for a new test subject?"

"...........It has been slow, like your own," responded the man.

"A shame. Though, I must ask, how did your first subject meet her end?"

"She was....... unable to cope with the consequences of her action. A shame, really. She had so much potential."

"They all do. Perhaps the next one you find shall free you from your shackles."

"Perhaps......by the way, nice room."

Indeed, the room was rather grand. Within it lay all kinds of wonders, ranging from jewels to fie clothing, for both genders, as well. On a table not far from the one displaying the hologram, an insect-shaped sculpture moved its claws to an unspoken rhythm, while on another, a green crystal hovered within a steel ring.

"Thank you. I think it is only natural that we ROBs should have possessions to match our might."

"Indeed.....So, what were you doing?"

"I was reviewing my what happened my subject. He blacked out half an hour ago. I only found out after one my emissaries returned from offering him some....well, gifts."

"Gifts? I thought you regarded him as a mere test subject."

"True, but I like to hold myself to some standards, unlike some others I know."

The man in the white suit's response to the insult was merely to raise an eyebrow, unable to really bring himself to care.

"Well, I don't have anything better to do at the moment, so do you mind if I watch it with you?"

"Fair enough."

With that, the two Random Omnipotent Beings turned back toward the hologram table.

The hologram, which had been paused for a moment, resumed its playback.

The box was laid out before the machine, which began to examine it.

"Hmm, that box looks.....odd," remarked the helmeted figure.

"How so," responded the White-suited one.

"Well, it doesn't match up with anything I've seen from any of the Spore universes. Not even Darkspore."

"...okay."

Then the box began to shake, before levitating into the air. Once it was level with the robot's head, it opened, releasing a strange object from it, which began scanning the commander.

"Well, that's new...." remarked the White-Suited figure.

Then a shockwave of red-light shot out from the object. The moment the light hit the commander, it went offline, shutting down in a second, while the light continued to pulse outward.

"....What the-" began the Helmet figure.

Then the hologram changed.

Now, it depicted a burnt out city, the site of a battle. Within it lay dozens of bodies, the dead and they dying, along with machines and creatures that were contributing to the slaughter. The scene slightly unnerved both ROBs, if only for the savagery displayed before them.

In one of the scenes before them, they saw the helmed ROB's test subject retreating from a machine, only barely avoiding death by hiding in an alley.

As he took to the roof of a building, trying to figure out where he was, the two Random Omnipotent Beings pondered what was going on.

"Did he get.... teleported somewhere?" asked the White Suited ROB.

"No, he's still in the commander. He's hallucinating," replied the helmeted one.

"Ok, then what is he...."

Then, the image began to be replaced by static. At times, it would be clear, at others it was filled with a blur of black and white.

But strangest of all, at some points, the image would be replaced by a symbol. It was hard to describe it, for it resembled a head of some sort. Not a human's, but definitely a head.

"What the-?!" began the Helmed one.

Then, the table itself began to shake. At first it was only minor, but soon it was trembling. Additionally, cracks had begun to appear in its body, as if something was trying to break out.

Finally, it gave out. From the cracks emerged spines and cables, mechanical limbs that acted like animals. The tendrils of wires searched around for a moment, before sinking into the floor and ceiling, with several spikes joining them. Soon a tangled mass had emerged from the table, rooted into the walls surrounding it.

Then, after a moment, they stopped. The table, too, calmed, now only showing the symbol, before finally returning to a view of the commander, who was now being examined by his creations.

The two ROBs could only stare on in silence. Around them, the room was in tatters. Several of the objects within it had been shattered to pieces, while the sculpture lay on the ground, slightly cracked, but fine otherwise.

Finally, the White Suit broke the silence.

".................Do you have any idea what that was?!"

"I......I.........I don't know," replied the Helmeted one. "This is unlike anything I have seen."

"The same can be said for me."

"...that is.......troublesome."

"I know."

".......You know, I have a feeling that this is going to be important, some day."

"Indeed, I think it will. I just wonder how."

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AN: Just so you know, the White Suited ROB is from Faith in Superior Firepower. And trust me, this WILL be important in the future.

And no, Faith will not show up. I'm not going to try and get her to restart FiSF.

So, read and review. This is Flameal15k, signing off.

 

[Flameal15k]

After the..... incident with the box, I decided to focus my attention on a different piece of technology:

The Staff of Life.

In game, you could only use 42 of them, and that seemed to hold out here, too. Guess Steve was a fan of Douglas Adams.

I made a rule right then to not use any of the staves until I figured out how to make more of them, otherwise I might never succeed in replicating in them.

My first attempts at this were, well, embarrassing: whenever I tried to analyze the system, even with a scanner, it didn't work. The scanner seemed to recognize it for a moment, then it just fizzed out. It was like something was actively interfering with my efforts to understand it.

This led me to try and examine the staves to see if they emitted any signals when I tried to scan them. Odds are, they were the things interfering with my scanning ability.

It turned out that I was right: when I tried to scan it after the other sensors were activated, I detected a counter signal, which cause my analysis signal to dissipate. Looks like the guys who made these didn't want to let their tech fall into the wrong hands.

Well, if at first you don't succeed, try again.

Now, normally, that would be a stupid idea if something is actively opposing your actions, but I wanted to see just how the counter signal worked. My own scanner had, for lack of a better term, a 'tuner' that let me change how the object was being scanned. Maybe if I tuned it differently, it could examine the staves.

Unfortunately, it turns out the staves adapted to the signal used against them, and quite fast at that, because ever time I changed the signal, they would change the countersignal.

The last time I tried scanning, I randomly shifted signals mid-scan to try and beat the counter signal. It responded by adapting just as fast.

Alright, fine. You win this one, staff.

I decided to drop trying to replicate the Staff of Life for now. I had a feeling I was just wasting my time and that whoever made the staff probably didn't want it abused.

That didn't stop me from trying to examine the staff in less invasive ways. While my attempt to scan in for replication had failed miserably, perhaps just examining it to see what kind of signals it emitted would yield fruit.

I started with thermal scans. Aside from the fact that it emitted a fair amount of heat, nothing.

Alright, switching to radio.

Just white noise.

Gamma?

Nothing. Good.

UV: just a hint.

Microwaves: nothing.

Alright, time to go to electrical and then call it a day.

Good thing I decided to finish with electrical: it lead to some interesting revelations.

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When the scan came back, I found out that there were five major areas of electrical charge within the staff of light. Further scans confirmed they were present in all of the staves. Apparently, they were sending pulses between each other, and very fast. Like, speed-of-thought fast.

They were sure sending a lot of impulses between each other...

And then they stopped transmitting.

They were still online and emitting readings, it was just that they had stopped sending pulses between each other.

Hmm.....

Well, that was something to think about.

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Unlike my efforts to understand the staves, my efforts to examine the rest of the spore tech was easy. Pitifully so. I was really looking forward to having to work to understand them.

Which left me with nothing else to do, besides get ready for the next universe and maybe put some colonies for my creations in my hub universe.

The colonies really weren't a hassle, so I decided to prepare for travelling to the next universe.

As I began charging up the portal, though, I suddenly found myself receiving a new message.

It read as follows:

The road ahead is long, and has many hurdles. Alone, you will never reach its end.

So take this and use it to grow stronger.

-???

Confused, I checked to see where it came from, and was stunned by the results: it had originated from the object in the box.

Looks like something important had happened.

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While I did invest a considerable amount of thought to both the object and the electrical anomalies in the staves, I really think I should have focused more on the object. It ended up being way more important than I expected it to be.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

The transmission I'd received from the box included a schematic of some sort. It appeared to be some kind of scanning structure, if the giant radio telescopes were anything to work by, and they appeared to have a really long range, since my systems just flat out gave up trying to calculate the distance after exceeding the length of my hub universe (ROB included that in my commander's databanks, for some reason). Clearly, whoever had made this wanted me to have an early warning system. But why?

Well, I decided, better to have it and not need it than the other way around.

I found a nice patch of land and set the structure to construct there.

Only, it didn't.

ERROR: CANNOT CONSTURCT HERE. NO AVAILABLE ATTACHMENT POINT.

Attachment point? The hell is that?

I tried a different. Same message.

Another spot. Same message.

I repeated this six more times and found myself receiving the same answer.

Great, the little bit of help I get from this mystery benefactor isn't even useful to me.

I turned back toward the dimension portal...

And found that there was now a green outline of the structure I wanted to build.

Along with a connector.

To my dimension gate.

.....what?

Why was this connecting to my dimension gate?

............................................................................

Something told me that whatever this was, it was either going to screw me over or make me all powerful. I was inclined to believe both. So, without much thought, I set up the structure, while ordering a few engineers to start building a crap-ton of turrets pointed at the gate, in case something nasty came through it. Better safe than sorry.

Apparently, it would take an hour for the structure to finish. Not really surprised, I decided to spend that time examining the various biospheres that my creations had lived in and compare them to what I'd imagined for them. Surprisingly, it was mostly the same as what I'd envisioned. Look, this stuff is under my 'Empiropedia' (unoriginal, I know, but Civilization is a good series). The aquatic creatures were especially well detailed, all things considered, given that most of my pictures form them had been hand drawn.

Anyways, an hour later, my defense grid and portal add on were complete. With that done, I decided to start up the portal and head to the next universe.

This time, though, I received a new prompt: the device asked me which universe I wanted to go to: Hub, Spore, or Random. Whom, nice touch.

Well, Random was the only one that was any real interest to me, so I decided on that one.

As I did so, though, I suddenly detected a surge in activity from the attachment I'd made to the portal. It seemed like it was scanning something, but I couldn't tell what.

Was it scanning the multiverse for a specific destination?

Suddenly, I felt very glad that I'd set up a defense grid around the portal.

The activity was over in a few minutes though, and the portal soon opened to its new destination. With nothing else to do, as I'd already informed my creations what I was doing (and asked them to not follow me, because I didn't want them sacrificing themselves in my service, since I was an unstoppable kill bot), I marched through, along with a small horde of tanks, planes, and bots. I was not going through the portal alone when someone seemed to be putting me on a very specific path.

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A few moments later, I exited the portal, along with my army.

I surveyed the land for a moment, trying to find any signs of life. Unfortunately, the side of the world I'd ended up on was not facing it's star, leaving me stuck in darkness, so I couldn't see anyting.

Okay, switching to sonar.

Now I could 'see' things.

Including the five thousand things circling around me.

That was worrisome.

Quickly, I activated my commander's floodlights (yes, it had floodlights. Go figure).

Before me were a horde of weird creatures: some were insectoid, some were reptilian, but all of them were odd.

Also, none of them looked sapient, and all of them were smaller than me.

I wasn't sure how they'd react to me, but my gut told me that they were animals and would probably be easily intimidated if I made a threat display, so I stomped my commanders legs, did some pushups with said legs, then let out a metallic roar. I still couldn't believe that was possible with the commander. Did the progenitors enjoy playing Metal Gear?

I thought that would intimidate the creatures.

WARNING: PROJECTILES ON COLLISION COURSE WITH COMMANDER>

Obviously, it didn't.

My response was a volley of lead, plasma, lasers and lighting. So much for being cautious.

Also, WHO SENT ME HERE?!

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Looking back, I probably should've brought a larger force with me to that universe. The final battle there really changed my journey up quite a bit. But, all things considered, I don't think I'd be who I am today if that battle ended any other way.

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!!!!

 

[Flameal15k]

Well, here we are.

I think this was one of the points that really changed up my plans for progressing as a commander. I mean, originally, it was just follow the normal 'go to universe, defeat evil faction (or grey faction that you dislike the most), reverse engineer their shinies, improve life for everyone, repeat ad infinity, and stick it to R.O.B..

This universe, though, changed that up a little. It was, well, the first hint that I got that something bigger was at play here. That I might not be dealing with a steam roll. That things were going to get tougher.

Well, to be fair, I didn't figure out most of that until I was almost done with fixing this universe, but that's besides the point. And anyways, what happened on that ship was important.

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The First Contact Battle was turning out rather well: however powerful these creatures were, most couldn't do enough damage to tanks to kill them without losing a few of their own. And since I'd brought some stitches along to heal, that damage really ended up being rather insignificant. Case in point: five minutes into the battle, and I'd slaughtered hundreds of creatures without taking a single casualty.

Then, out of nowhere, a laser cut through five of my tanks and one of my stitches, reducing them to molten slag.

Following the path of the laser, I found myself facing a hexapedal machine, with perfect radial symmetry. A few more of its kind were moving into position, and two had already started firing at my troops. Additionally, other mechanical entities were joining the fray, some attacking my troops, others pulling back the wounded beasts for healing.

Well, it was clear that whoever I was fighting against had an excellent understanding of both biology and robotics. Not that it would help them, since I had superior firepower.

I used my radar and sonar systems to search for enemies that were obscured by distance or ground cover, then set artillery fire on their position. I also searched for invisible foes, but so far none were showing up. Lucky me.

Soon, the horde of beasts and machines that I was fighting began to thin out, with my foes falling faster than reinforcements for them could arrive. Slowly but surely, I was winning.

This must have occurred to my opponents, as well, for they soon began to withdraw. To their credit, it wasn't a disorganized route, but more of a tactical withdrawal, with some of the horde taking potshots at my army as it retreated. Not that those really helped, because Progenitor alloys are unbelievably tough. Still, A for Effort.

Once the last of the foes retreated, I began setting up my base. Factories began churning out tanks, bots and planes to secure the perimeter, while engineers started setting up turrets for added security.

Me? I was examining my opponents.

I decided to see how well my scanner worked on other universes. If it worked well for the Spore Universe, then maybe it worked well here.

So, without much fanfare, I used the scanner on five different creatures and machines I'd encountered in the horde. Oddly, they all looked familiar to me.

After a moment of scanning each, I received the results:

The first one I examined, a squat cyclopean biped, was called the pack brawler, and it.... belonged to the Quantum genesis type. What was that about? What was the deal with genesis type?

The next one I examined, a spiky purple biped, was called the animus, and it belonged to the Necro Genesis type. Great, another genesis type.

The third one I examined, a green bipedal reptile that was apparently filled with toxins, was called the toxiraptor, and it belonged to the Bio genesis type. Well, it looked like genesis types were a thing around here.

The fourth creature I examined, a weird orange/red reptilian creature that I'd early seen covered in flames, was called the pyrachnid and belonged to the Plasma genesis type. Okay, this genesis type thing was getting annoying....

Finally, the last foe I examined was a yellow and grey tripedal machine equipped with a missile launcher. Apparently, it was called the blastopod...... and it belonged to the cyber genesis type.

...

OAKY, SERIOUSLY, WHAT IS WITH THESE GENESIS TYPES?! THERE ARE FIVE OF THEM AND NOT ONLY DO ALL OF THE ORGANISMS I'VE FOUGHT HAD THEM, BUT SO DO SOME OF THE MACHINES! WHAT GIVES!?

I was about to go further into my rant, but just then, one of my aerial scouts revealed a structure on the planet that, apparently, had intact computers in it. Deciding that scanning the computer might make it easier to determine which universe I'd ended up in, I put my commander on a transport and moved to the structure.

When I arrived, several flame tanks were busy torching the remains of the horde, clearly intent on making sure they went away. I didn't think they could revive the dead, but it was best not to take chances. In the distance, I could hear gunfire coming from my army battling the horde.

The building, as it turned out, was mostly rubble, but it still had a workable computer, which I began analyzing. To my surprise, I was able to make out a lot of the data stored in there, though most of it was just average stuff for managing a space colony.

I did manage to get some other transmissions, although they were more distressed, and seemed to be relating an invasion of some sort. Probably the horde of creatures I was dealing with now. I didn't hear much, but I did come across two words that felt important: Crogenitor and E-DNA.

Why did those feel important-WAIT.

Genesis

E-DNA

Crogenitor

........ Darkspore. That was it, I was in the Darkspore universe. And right after regular Spore too.

Well, now, at least, I had a goal in mind:

In Darkspore, the player was the last of the Crogenitors, and had to battle the evil Darkspore, monsters created from E-DNA. They were led by the Crogenitor who created E-DNA, Xylem, now known as the Destructor. To battle the Darkspore, the player would use genetic heroes created from stabilized E-DNA, who they would then level up to fight glorious battles. Or at least they did until the game was shut down.

Anyways, if I was going to make this universe better, I'd need to find the last Crogenitor and their ship. Luckily, the building I was examining just happened to be emitting a progenitor signal, which meant I could search for similar signals across the galaxy to find my target.

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Sure enough, I found another signal somewhere in-between a couple of stars. Specifically, in the dark space between three stars. Smart place to hide: close enough to each to maintain power via solar radiation, but far enough away to avoid notice by passing ships or creatures. The only reason I found it was because not only did I know what I was looking for, I also had super advanced progenitor scanners.

As I approached the ship, I was surprised by how it was designed: it was rather bulbous, yet it had an organic elegance to it as well. Everything I could see was really shiny and looked like something Apple would make. Neat.

Anyways, I thought it would be nice if I introduced myself before my potential ally tried something rash. I sent out a signal in the progenitor language that stated who I was and asked if I could dock with them. I offered them the choice of where I should land and how, and took ample precautions to inform them that I came in peace.

To my surprise, though, I received no response.

Odd. I tried again. Still no response.

Okay, something was up: my scanners confirmed there was no damage to the ship, so the Darkspore hadn't got luck and killed the last Crogenitor before I got here.

I tried the signal one last time, and when I received no response, I decided it was time to act. But first, think.

I examined my scan of the ship: while no data had been provided on the inhabitants, I could get a good reading on the interior of the ship: a few turrets and drones for defense, which I easily disabled with some basic hacking programs. Oddly, I didn't detect any cyber warfare routines being thrown against me, which was odd, since I new the ship had an A.I. on board called H.E.L.I.X.

I probably should have found that more worrisome, but I really wanted to help the last progenitor, so I ignored the strange feeling in my gut at the time and go to work preparing for the entry: while a robot would be nice, here, it would be better for first contact if I appeared in person to greet my potential ally. Luckily, my host body had been brought through the portal and was available for link up.

So, after designing and fabricating a space suit and running several weeks worth of training sims in under a minute, I entered the ship.

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I was surprised by how empty it was: aside from a few maintenance drones which, oddly, didn't try to attack me, there were no signs of activity on the ship. This shouldn't be surprising, but it still unnerved me.

Putting my nervousness behind me for the moment, I examined the map I'd made of the ship and located the cryogenics room. A fair bit of walking was ahead of me, but I didn't really mind: I actually like walking around, so any chance to stretch my legs was appreciated.

It took me about 10 minutes to reach cryogenics, at which point I started looking for an occupied pod. That wasn't really hard, seeing how all but one of the pods were opened. The only one that wasn't was clearly active, though when I checked a terminal connected to the pod to see the biometrics on the subject, I got an error screen. Worried, I consulted my database on the Progenitor language and pressed the button that initialized the thawing process. I'd still have to wait five minute for it to go active, though.

To pass the time, I began ordering my armies to move out and begin engaging the Darkspore wherever they found them. If we wanted to win this, the Corruptor's agents had to be purged. Since I could do all of this in a couple of seconds, that really left me with very little to do.

I responded to this source of boredom by turning my thoughts toward a different question: my body. Specifically, how could I possess a human body if my creations existed in a universe where humanity had likely become extinct. It didn't exactly make sense. It could have been that R.O.B. gave them the technology, but I found no evidence indicating that was the case, plus the fact that it didn't fit R.O.B.'s modus operandi to be that helpful. Steve was also a potential source of that knowledge, but with how much time he spent in the galactic core, I doubted that.

Before I could ponder that further, I received an alert from my starship: apparently, the Staff of Life had restarted sending energy surges between the five main energy sources with the staff. Something had made it go active.

The fact it had five major power sources bothered me a little bit, now that I was in the Darkspore universe. Give it's focus on fives, that was not surprising.

Before I could ponder things further, though, I noticed that the pod had finished thawing its occupant. Putting aside the report for now, I turned toward the pod, I prepared to greet my new ally.

Needless to say, I was surprised to discovered that the pod was empty.

How? How was it empty? Had R.O.B. pulled a trick on me? It would certainly fit his character.

Whatever the cause, though, my original plans had fallen to pieces. Now, I wasn't sure what to do.

Needless to say, I spent the next few moments thrashing around in rage, sending loose debris flying.

I was only brought out of my fury when I hit an empty cryopod, shattering the glass (which had apparently been of low quality to begin with)..... and puncturing my suit in the process.

Anger gave way to panic as I tried to seal the suit to avoid being exposed to the atmosphere of the ship, which I assumed to be toxic. Unfortunately, the puncture in the suit ran the length of its left arm (I'm a Southpaw), making this almost impossible.

As I was about to resign myself to death, though, I noticed that I wasn't suffocating. Examining my suits computers, I was stunned to discover that the atmosphere of the ship was a perfect match to Earth's. Curious, I took off my helmet and took in a deep breath..... and found myself inhaling some rather cold yet breathable air.

Well, that was odd. Though, since I wasn't dead, now I could think about how to advance from here.

Before I could formulate a new plan, though, I noticed an arrow appear on one of the nearby monitors, pointing toward my left. Perplexed, I followed it to find another arrow, pointing toward my right. Soon, I found myself following a trail of arrows toward an unknown destination. I don't know why I followed them, but it was probably due to my belief that the last Crogenitor must have been on the ship and was trying to arrange some kind of meeting. Since this felt rather suspect, I activated a neural link to my commander, which ensured that if I died, my mind would return to my xenosentry body.

As I advanced, I began tearing off my suit, for I was passing through a rather warm area in the ship, and the climate control on my suit had failed due to the puncture. Soon, I was in a smaller bodysuit that was much cooler overall.

At last, I found myself at the end of the line of arrows, which terminated in a room filled with large tubes and tanks. The genetic hero creation room. Here, E-DNA would be processed to create new variation on the genetic heroes and to power up the existing ones.

In fact, I could see the terminal for that process, along with a chair in place. Looking at the chair made me realize how far I'd walked, which had exceeded even my love of walking and worn out my feet and relatively weak legs (side effect of using a recently grown body, I concede).

As I began walking toward the chair, I noticed that I'd received a new notification: Apparently, the activity in the Staff of Life had skyrocketed, with pulses between the power sources happening every 30 seconds. It was surprising, but at that time, I really wanted to sit down.

If I'd paid more attention to the notification, I would have noticed that the pulses were increasing in frequency as I got closer to the hair, but again, I was more concerned with pulling up a seat.

After what seemed like a decade, but was really only a minute, reached the chair. Tired and slightly broken from having my hopes dashed, I sat down and began getting comfy, putting my arms on the armrests and leaning back into the chair.

Suddenly, I felt something cold around my arms as restraints emerged from the chair and locked my wrists in place. Soon, more restraints immobilized my legs and neck. Panicking, I tried to struggle free, but it was futile. As I tried to think of some way to escape (the odds were unlikely, but I would be damned if I didn't try), I felt several stinging pains in my back that reminded me of needles, and soon found myself feeling very tired. I manged to turn my head enough to see that they were indeed needles mounted on metal tentacles, which were slowly retracting back into the floor.

Then, finally, I lost consciousness.

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ERROR: CMDR_FLAMEAL15K_OFFLINE

CONNECTION_LOST

SEARCHING_FOR_LINK

LINK_NOT_FOUND

ACTIVATE_STANDBY_MODE

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AN: Read and Review. This is Flameal15k, signing off.

 

[Flameal15k]

The machine skittered toward its destination, careful to avoid its compatriots as they all set out to fulfill their personal tasks. Some were performing maintenance on the old parts of the structure, others were delivering supplies to the guards and traders. But this one was different: it had an audience with the master.

With speed that would make even a fighter jet jealous, it crossed halls that few humans would ever lay eyes on, evading skull like drones that were busy checking the structure for cracks. It climbed up walls that even ants would find impossible to scale, all in the name of meeting the master.

Finally, after a short while, it reached it's destination: an oval shaped roomed centered around a hologram emitter. Nearby, the master was seated, wearing hir strange helmet. In hir hand was a book: though it could not see the majority of the cover, it could make out some of the title: F*** O* Mach**ius.

Though the machine was not one that would normally examine its surroundings beyond noting what obstacles may exist to its routines, it noticed that there was some damage to the emitter in the center to the room. The source was not a concern, only that the machine was damaged. Though the damages were recent, more so were the signs of repair; clearly, the master had exerted some of hir power to fix it. This was unacceptable: maintenance should have already been working on fixing the damage. The machine immediately sent a request for several of its compatriots outfitted for repair to begin fixing the mess.

With that issue settled, the machine approached its master, who had finally noticed its prescence. Sighing in relief, the master extended an arm toward the machine, which responded by opening a compartment in its back and offering a cylindrical container to its master. The master responded by opening the top of the cylinder and taking a sip. A moment later, a satisfied sigh escaped the master's lips.

Good, the tea had been made just right.

It's purpose fulfilled, the machine retreated back to its origin, where, already, other fluids were being prepared: some for consumption, others for maintenance, others still for construction. The master usually preferred to have some time alone to enjoy a good drink, though they never tried anything alcoholic. Ostensibly, it was to avoid dulling hir senses, but the machine, with its limited freedom, assumed the real reason was that the master really just didn't want to end up drunk.

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R.O.B. sighed. The tea was just right: not to hot, not to cold, and with just the right amount of sweetness. Perfect for help calming down after the strange incident a few hours before.

After drinking a fourth of the mug, the being put it down and began to turn its thoughts toward the strange events a few hours prior. Clearly, that machine was not made by any faction in the Spore universe, not even the Darkspore. Someone else had made it. Perhaps she could consult STEVE about it later.

Though, in truth, he was also rather annoyed at STEVE as well, for the little saucer itself was an unforeseen development: traditionally, only one Random Omnipotent Being monitored a commander at a time, and his presence infringed on her monopoly of Commander Flameal15k. She would have to arrange a time to chat with the Space-Time Entity of Vacuum Energy, preferably soon.

For now, though, the otherworldly ROB decided to turn his attention back toward his plaything. It was unlikely that he would remain in his home universe for long, and when he moved, she would need to know how to act. After all, causing misery to Commanders was both a tradition and hobby among Random Omnipotent Beings.

Turning toward the partially repaired holo-emitter, the otherworldly ROB flicked his hand, signifying it to reactivate and focus on the commander. Despite it's damaged state, it complied. The damages had been repaired, but only partially: omnipotence should not be wasted on such trivialities, and any ways, the maintenance drones would fix it eventually.

The minute the image came into focus, ROB noticed that his plaything was examining a blueprint for some kind of scanner.... which had attached itself to the dimension gate.

Odd.

Odder still was that the scanner's design had come from the artifact that had messed with the both of them earlier. Clearly, there were more to the situation than meets the eye.

But, for now, ROB was content to wait and see what happened. As the scanner would not finish for an hour, the omnipotent being turned its attention back to its book.

"So that's how he died", it thought.

An hour later, the structure had finished and the commander was preparing for a jump. This pleased ROB: soon it would be able to mess with its plaything to its heart's content.

Only, something happened with the portal: the scanner began, well scanning, for energy signatures. This would not be surprising, if not for the fact it was scanning alternate universes.

What was this machine's purpose? To put the one who built it on a path that only the scanner's makers knew? If so, then they had just made a powerful enemy, for ROB would not allow them to interfere with its fun.

Eventually, the scanner seemed to find what it was looking for, and entered some coordinates into the portal's computer. Soon, the portal locked onto them and opened its gate there. The commander went through, along with his army.

On the other side, they faced an army of creatures and machines. They're Darkspore, realized ROB, who had made a point of examining as many universes as possible before sending hir pet out to play. After all, knowing what universes they could send the commander to also meant knowing which ones would screw with him the most.

Then the commander found a crogenitor machine, which, based on hir examination of his thoughts, had clued him into the universe he was in. After that, he began searching for something.

Probably the Crogenitor ship, they thought. That's where his only possible allies in this universe are.

The fact that the images that followed only confirmed this made ROB crack a devious smile, though given the face mask it was wearing, this was hard to tell.

Though ROB could not understand why his slave (really, it was true) was boarding the ship in his human body, she could not care less. In truth, she did want to see what the last crogenitor looked like, for she had not payed attention to the appearance of these precursor aliens.

Consequently, he was just as surprised as his slave to discover that the cryo-pod that contained the last crogenitor was empty. Though she was able to control it better, the truth was that she was just as angry and stunned as her pet that this search had been for naught.

But all this went away when the commander began to follow a path that the ship itself highlighted for him. Curious, he watched as the commander meandered his way to the genetic hero creation room and found himself before a terminal, with a chair placed in front of the terminal. ROB assumed it was because someone wanted the commander to read something on the terminal.

Consequently, she was just as surprised as her slave was when it restrained him and knocked him out with a tranquilizer, which somehow also put the commander chasis into standby mode.

Although the omnipotent beings face was obscured, one needed only to look its hands, which were slowly balling up into fists, to understand exactly how angry it felt at having its plans interrupted-no, not interrupted, derailed.

So, it thought, someone wants to mess with my plans? Someone wants to troll my slave. Well then, I guess I need to show them who's in charge around here.

Though, unfortunately, since I know not who did so, my only course of action at the moment is to help my pet.

Oh well. I can just troll him some more later.

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AN: Well, the second interlude is done.

So, for clarification:

The book ROB was reading was Fall of Macharius, the final part of The Macharian Crusade from Warhammer 40000. The skull like drones were servo skulls.

The reason ROB is referred to at times with masculine, feminine and gender-neutral pronouns is to once again show just how alien ROB is meant to be at the moment.

Read and Review (it's the only way this story will get better). This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

[CMDR_XENOSENTRY_MODE: STANDBY_UNTIL_CMDR_FLAMEAL15K_SIGNAL_RELOCATED]

[ALERT:SIGNAL_RELOCATED]
[CONNECTING_NOW]
[SIGNAL_REESTABLISHED]
[REACTIVATING_CMDR_FLAMEAl15K]

[STANDBY_FOR_REACTIVATION]

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The first thing I noticed upon regaining consciousness was that things were dark. Like, pitch black. I couldn't even see a millimeter in front of me.

My second thought: where was I? And who had caught me?

The third thing I noticed was that I could hear someone talking. IT was rather feint, but still decipherable.

"Are you sure this is the right thing to do?" asked a mechanical voice. Despite its mechanical tone, though, I was pretty sure that it was female in nature. "This plan does not offer a high chance of success."

"And the alternative, due to our devotion to this plan, has a negative probability of succeeding," replied a second mechanical voice. This one was distinctly masculine, yet, somehow, sounded almost totally emotionless."

"Besides, this was part of our deal with Steve," remarked a third voice, this one soft and unnerving. It, too, was distinctly masculine in nature."

Wait, so Steve was involved with this? Intriguing. Also rather worrisome.

"And, overall, this one has the most potential to benefit the largest amount of others besides ourselves. Our empire may have fallen long ago, but through this plan, our legacy will become immortal," replied a much deeper voice. No way that was anything other than masculine.

"And with it, our memory as the caretakers we strove to be, not the monsters that the remainder of our kind have become," replied a fifth voice, this one soft and caring in tone. It too was masculine.

"All great points," remarked one final voice, this one ethereal in nature, and distinctly feminine in tone, "but I believe that we should finish this conversation soon."

"Why?" asked the deep voice.

"Because our guest has woken up."

"...........oh."

I got the feeling that they were embarrassed about this.

"So, should I do the honors?" asked the female voice.

"No, I will," remarked the deep voice.

Then, darkness gave way to light.

Or, rather, six lights: a blue one, a purple one, a green one, an orangish red one, a yellow one, and a white one. Though they had nothing on them that resembled eyes, I got the feeling that they were watching me.

"........Um, hello," I began, unsure how to continue.

"Hello," replied the booming voice I had heard earlier. As it boomed into my ears, I noticed that the blue light glowed brighter. It appeared that the blue light was the owner of the deep voice.

".....Who-" I began, only to quickly find myself cut off by the deep voice.

"Are we?" it replied, seemingly aware that I was going to ask the question. "We are many things: geneticists, scientists, visionaries, legends. But I believe you wish to know what species we are, which is a far easier question to answer: we are the crogenitors, and I am Zelem."

My response was, well, rather blunt.

"You're lying."

"Now I'm sure that you have many questions to ask, and we have plenty of answers to.....wait, what?"

"You. Are. Lying."

"...And what makes you thing I'm lying?"

"Um, let me see.... maybe its the fact that 'Zelem' is, I don't know, DEAD right now."

"And you really think that would be a problem?" responded the soft, unnerving voice I'd heard earlier. The purple light glowed as the voice spoke, giving me a good idea of who that voice belonged to. "I invented necrogenesis and shattered the barriers between life and death. My creations can cause uncontrollable terror and rend the souls of their foes from their bodies. So, with all of that considered, is it truly unbelievable that we could persist beyond death in some way?"

".................Fair point. So, I assume that you are Ingto?"

"Indeed."

I turned to the green light. "You must be Astra."

"Correct," replied the green light in the feminine voice I'd heard earlier.

Then I turned to the reed/orange one. "You're Ptyrron."

"The one and only," came the reply, this one in the soft and calming tone I'd heard earlier.

My attention soon fell upon the yellow light. "Which mean that you must be Suzu."

"Your assumption is valid," responded the light in the masculine mechanical voice I'd heard earlier.

Then I turned toward the white light. As there were only five crogenitors left in existence, this one clearly wasn't a member of them.

"I can introduce myself if you cannot determine my identity," it began in the feminine mechanical voice I'd heard earlier.

Luckily, I remembered that voice.

"That will be unnecessary. You're HELIX, aren't you?"

".......You are correct. I am impressed with your knowledge of who we are."

"Thanks. Though seriously, I have one question: How did all of you know I was coming?"

The five crogenitors looked at each other for a moment (or at least looked like it, given that they didn't have any eyes in those forms) before turning toward HELIX, who sighed.

"I will explain:"

"As you are aware, the crogenitor empire spanned thousands of worlds. They shepherded many civlizations toward greatness, and crushed those that were dangers to galactic peace. Eventually, they were undone by the corrupting power of E-DNA."

"I know all of that."

"Correct. But here is something that you didn't: prior to the fall of the crogenitor empire, they discovered a being beyond their comprehension. One that had abilities that put it on a level of godhood. Despite many ears of examination in the perceptory, they were unable to comprehend his might."

"Okay, why is this important?"

"Because you have met this entity before."

"I have?"

"Yes," answered Suzu, "we designated it the Space-Time Entity of Vacuum Energy."

"Space-Time Entity of....Vacuum.....Energy.... STEVE."

"Correct. That was the abbreviation we used, as well as its public name."

".........You've met him."

"We just said that we did, please try to keep up," replied Zelem.

"Okay, so, what's so important about him?"

"Following the fall of Perceptum, we decided to go into hiding using Ingto's research to exist as entities that are best described as ghosts. Unfortunately, though, only the five of us were able to escape the planet, and there was no time to search for others of our kind among the stars. We were alone.

"That was when he me with us and offered a solution: he claimed that other random omnipotent beings like him were sending out people on journeys that spanned existence itself, across any number of parallel universes. Most of those sent out had been ripped from all that they cherished, which offended STEVE's sensibilities, which is why he offered us an agreement: he would send the first of these beings to wander into his domain to help us if, in exchange, we offered our technology to that being as a gift if and when they defeated the Darkspore. He appears to upheld his end of the bargain, so we wish to uphold ours."

".......Interesting. So, he wanted me to help save you guys, right?"

"Correct."

"And in exchange, I get your technology."

"The rest of it, yes," replied Suzu.

"Rest?"

"We were the ones who designed the planet buster missile. Just because we are peaceful does not mean we did not prepare for war."

"So," spoke Ingto, "will you help us?"

I thought for a moment: did I really want to do this? I really despised being used as a pawn, even if the intetions of the people using me were pure. But, at the same time, the crogenitors really did need the help.

"Very well, I'll help you."

I heard a massive sigh resound through the room when I said that.

"But first, answer me one question: why did you need to knock me out?"

Astra was the one who answered that question.

"All of our technology is modified only to function for crogenitors. We knocked you out so that we could hybridize your body with our genetics, to ensure that the technology works for you."

".....Thank you."

"You are welcome. Now awaken."

With that, I passed out again.

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The next thing I new, I woke up in the chair I had fallen asleep in. The firs thing I did was slap myself in the face, both to wake up and faster and prove that I was not in a dream. At that point, I honestly thought that the conversation I'd had was a dream.

"Genetic hero reanimation complete," chimed in the voice of HELIX.

Turing toward the rest of the chamber, I noticed 25 different beings inside glass tanks, their bodies twitching uncomfortably. Looks like someone had decided to get them into fighting condition.

"So, ready to help?" asked HELIX.

Well, looks like I wasn't dreaming.

"........yes."

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AN: READ AND REVIEW (it's the only way this story will get better). I will clarify on any points you found confusing.

THIS IS FLAMEAL15k, SIGNING OFF!

 

[Flameal15k]

Before you guys asks, no, I didn't go off to defeat the Corruptor after I woke up. I didn't feel that I was ready yet and besides, I had other things to do. The main one was simple: examine the genetic heroes.

Look, crogenitor tech might be absurdly broken, but their biotech is awesome. I mean, one of them made a being who could literally rip the souls out of people to interrogate them, another one could create alternate timelines, and a third one could warp reality so that he could attack in every single way he possibly could across any timeline (stop bragging, Maldri).

And, I'll admit, part of me felt unworthy to have these heroes at my disposal. I mean, why should I? I was just one commander who'd barely started my journey. The greatest victory I had to my name was defeating the Grox, and that wasn't much of an achievement in my eyes (especially considering how easily I did so). Look, I'll shamelessly brag about some of my other achievements, but that one didn't really feel that big to me, okay?

Still, this was honor that was thrust upon me, and whether or not I deserved it, I knew that I had to help the Crogenitors, even if one of them was of questionable morals (looking at you, Ingto). No one deserved to become a part of the Darkspore, no matter how evil they were/are (though that's at least partially because I'm pretty sure the Darkspore would become even more evil if they assimilated an irredeemably evil being). And I had a feeling that the Crogenitors would prefer I used their genetic heroes to defeat the Corruptor and his minions, even if it was only as support for my robotic armies. And, to be fair, they did look really cool.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I should probably tell you about our first meeting first.

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H.E.L.I.X. (and, from here on out, I'll refer to her as HELIX, okay?) was very quick to reanimate the heroes. The few she had left in stasis were roused from their slumber, while the rest were cloned from stored genetic tissue.

"Will they still be the same people as they were before they, you know, died?" I asked HELIX, still confused on this hole resurrection idea.

"You realize that you are talking to an A.I. from a civilization that was capable of shattering the barriers between life and death?" was her response.

I found that all I could do was nod awkwardly in the negative, because I had forgotten that.

"Well, when we resurrect the heroes, we simply use necrogenesis-based machines to pull their souls back into the world of the living and place them within their new bodies."

"Oh...... wait, won't they be lonely? I mean, they are the last of their kind."

"We took the liberty of capturing members of their species during the Darkspore conflict and placing them into stasis, excluding Krel's, which you should already know. When you defeat the Corruptor, we will thaw them out and allow them to begin their civilization anew. And before you ask, we will make efforts to prevent the Nocturni from repating the actions of their forefathers."

"The foresight of the Crogenitors is, well, unexpected," was my only response. Though, to be honest, that was only because I felt really bad when I realized that Krel really was the last of his kind, as HELIX confirmed that the Crogenitors did not have enough h=of his species' genome to reconstitute his kind via cloning. Even if I tried with the Progenitor tech I had, it was still impossible.

The fact that I couldn't help him, at all, even with the mighty technology I had, made my heart break. But I buried y sorrow to ask one last question.

"How will they react to my prescence?"

"What do you mean, Commander Flameal15k?"

"Aren't the genetic heroes expecting a Crogenitor?"

"The Crogenitors could change form at will. I presume you know what Zelem's form looked like, correct?"

"Yes?"

"Well, Ptyron's form had wings, while Ingto's was based described as a living carcass. And besides, you are a Crogenitor now, or did you forget?"

I was about to ask her for clarification when I realized that she wa s correct: the five Crogenitors that had put their last hopes on me had hybridized my body withtheir genetics. For all intents and purposes, I was a Progenitor. And now, I had to live up to the mantle given to me.

"All Genetic Heroes are now active. I would suggest that you say something to them before you commence any engagements with the Darkspore."

Deciding to heed HELIX's advice, I walked up to the edge of the viewing terrace in the Genetic Hero Creation Room. Before me, the25 Genetic Heroes stood at the ready, all of them focusing in my presence. I'd drawn quite a crowd, which made me rather uncomfortable (I don't like being the center of attention unless I really want my point heard, okay).

But, somehow, I managed to speak.

"Thank you all for your devotion to this cause. You are... beings of untold power. Gifted by the mightiest beings in creation, given power over life and death that none have ever know."

The fact that I got that far was amazing in and of itself, as I thought I'd end up messing something up and end up making a fool of myself before the gathered crowd.

But after that point, I felt more at ease over what I said next. The data HELIX provided for me also made it easier to decide what that would be.

"You have all faced much hardship on this path: all of you have had the lives you knew ripped away by the Darkspore. I can never give that back to you, but I can offer you vengeance. I offer you the chance to show the Corrupter all of the pain and suffering you've experienced, to force him to pay for what he has done. And after this, if you so desire, you may leave and start a new life, however you choose. But now that is a far off goal, and the path to it is fraught with peril. TO even have a hope for tomorrow, we must face the darkness before. We must take the fight to the enemy. We must go forth and fight the Darkspore. We must undo all that they have done, unmake their greatest achievements, and beat them back to Scaldron. There, we will face the Corruptor himself. I will not lie, it will be a difficult fight, and you may not survive it. But if we stand united, we will prevail!"

After that last word, I felt really pumped and powerful. But all of that confidence began to fade away as my audience stared at me, without any sign of emotion on their faces. Then, to my surprise, I began to hear clapping. Focusing my heightened senses, I found that it was the insectoid Bio Tempest known as Sage who had started clapping. He was soon joined by Zrin, the Snfist and Meditron, the repair bot. Then, to my astonishment, the remaining heroes began to clap and cheer for me. I couldn't tell if it was out of respect or pity, but I appreciated it all the same.

After taking a moment to enjoy the adulation, I headed to the ship's navigation and began setting a course toward the Darkspore. I also took the opportunity to hook up with my fleet and begin building more bots. Finally, I locked in a set of coordinates and made the jump to another system.

When we arrived, the computer aboard the Crogenitor ship identified it as Zelem's Nexus, formerly Nakto.

I smiled at this knowledge, then ordered my robots and the genetic heroes to make planet fall.

After all, this was where the resistance won its first battle in the game, so why shouldn't I start my resistance here?"

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Read and Review. This is Flameal15k, signing off.

 

[Flameal15k]

The Battle for Zelem's Nexus was, honestly, not very interesting. I mean, the final battle with Polaris was interesting, but other than that, it was rather boring, especially in comparison to the battles to come. Still, I think people will want to hear about it, so here it is.

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Being a commander has its perks.

Namely, I didn't have to abide by the rules of the games and films whose universes I'd entered.

Which meant that, among other things, when I landed on Zelem's Nexus, I could send in ALL of the genetic heroes, and not just three at most.

This, combined with a horde of killbots, made it easy to establish a beachhead on the fragments of Nakto and begin assembling an army to fight against the Darkspore native to the world.

It also meant that any Darkspore that would've been mini-bosses really just ended up being annoyances, given that I outmatched them in both numbers and firepower.

Ultimately, those so-called lieutenants only ended up being delays in my battle against Polaris.

That, though, was actually a tough fight.

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After about three hours of exterminating the Darkspore covering the Nexus, I finally reached the Chaos Fields, where the battle against Polaris was supposed to take place. Apparently, Polaris the Gravity Manipulator did not get the message, though, because he didn't show up at first.

What a jerk.

My solution? Start killing the nearby Darkspore and see if he got angry.

Considering the fact that I got an angry roar and something huge and spiderlike showed up told me that I made the right choice.

"So, you are the last crogenitor...... how quaint."

"I'm flattered."

"Hmph. Well, you shouldn't get ahead of yourself: you are hiding behind your army, as well as the genetic heroes. Tough I am impressed that you were able to raise such a great mechanical army without us noticing. It is.... impressive, to say the least. Unfortunate it is, then, that we have to fight."

"Are you going to keep blabbering or are you going to fight, you overgrown gravity spider-centaur THING!?"

"Urgh, fine, now we battle, RAGH!"

With that, he started teleporting. Just great.

And he summoned in some minions. Not that they'd help too much.

I told the genetic heroes to focus on Polaris while I sent my robots after his minions. With the minions caught up fighting a horde of easily replaced machines, I was a confident in my heroes abilities to deal with the overgrown spider-crab.

Then a column of tanks got sucked into a black holes, of which several had appeared across the battlefield.

Oh yeah, Polaris could make mini-black holes. Ugh.

Not that those would save him. I quickly decided to get some artillery (and my commander) blasting at the overgrown seafood special, which really put the hurt on him. Of course, since he was teleporting, not all of the hits connected with him, but enough did to give him a fair amount of pain.

In fact, even Polaris seemed to realize this and quickly made efforts to deal with that. He started up something that HELIX told me was called the Mark of Zelem. He quickly started marking targets with it. I was wondering what exactly that did when he fired a huge set of glowing blue bolts into the air, which broke off and began hurtling toward the targets he'd marked, reducing a fair amount of my army to scrap.

Oh yeah, Mark of Zelem marks people as homing targets for his ranged attacks.

Too bad I remember the counter.

When Polaris readied himself to repeat the trick, he trick, he selected a new set of targets, including my commander.

Clever, but not clever enough.

Just before he launched the attack, I had Meditron the Repair Bot activate one of his abilities, Syndrome Shift. According to the game, it swapped bufs between your friends and foes based on the effects the buff offered: if it was beneficial, it gave your allies the buff and robbed the enemy of it, while if the buff was harmful, the reverse happened. All of this meant one thing: Polaris' attack would hit his own forces.

And since I'd wiped out most of the Darkspore he was fighting with, that meant it would hit HIM. The minute he realized this, he seemed to go into a panic, just before he got clobbered. Amazingly, that didn't kill him.

Though the next barrage of attacks form both the heroes and my army certainly helped him on his way.

I think he just decided it was time to flee after that and promptly tired to teleport away. Or rather, he would've if I hadn't show him in the face.

When I got close to him, I noticed just how much of a mess he had become: His mask was the only part of him that wasn't dirty, and I could tell that he had been crying underneath it. He couldn't even speak now, all he was doing was incoherently babbling and trying to attack me with his fists.

I responded by activating my overcharge attack on his face.

"Light's out, seafood."

Then the blast hit him. Somehow, his mask survived unscathed. As for the rest of his body....

Well, he basically floated into the air, screaming, and got shrunk into some tiny light that disappeared into nothingness. According to HELIX, he'd been crushed by a black hole created from his own powers. Ironic, no?

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After that battle, it didn't take me too long to remove the rest of the Darkspore from the Nexus. I also managed to find the last of the Zelemnites, who I allowed to retake their home.

After all, I had bigger fish to fry.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

AN: Just so you know, the rest of the battles with the destructors will be single chapters that include the invasion of the worlds and the battles themselves. The final three, though, will have expanded fight scenes, and the third to last and last battles will be split across two chapters each, okay? Just wanted to give you a heads up.

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After I'd reduced Polaris to a speck and a mask (which I decided to keep as a trophy), I quickly set a course for Nocturna, the enxt target for the Crogenitor Insurgency. The planet had four moons and, thanks to some malicious experimenting by Crogenitor Ingto, the barriers between life and death had been shattered, so apparently spirits were running amuck on the world of eternal night.

Seriously, why, Ingto? Why did you do that?

But enough of that. It was time to bring an end to the Darkspore's tyranny of that world

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The arrival to Nocturna was a surprisingly tranquil affair: I didn't encounter any resistance, to my immense surprise. I also didn't get any crap from the spirits that wandered on the planet now that the barriers between life and death had been shattered. Maybe they really hated the Darkspore and wanted me to off that horde of monsters? I wasn't really sure.

Any ways, once I made planet fall, things moved quickly after that: I set up a few factories and got to work on churning out a metallic horde to support the genetic heroes against the Darkspore. I knew that I didn't really need to send them into this battle, but I figured that they would probably want vengeance on the Darkspore (especially in Krel's case) and wouldn't forgive me if I denied them that.

Once they were on the ground, though, they proved to be fully capable of handling themselves: they literally cut through a whole army of Darkspore while my machines were being built. Once they finally got backup, the battle turned into a curb-stomp. And oh how satisfying it was.

Eventually, I'd once again forced the Darkspore off of the majority of the planet, leaving only the battlefield with Nashira as their final bastion of power. Now all I had to do was wait for her to show up.

Then a giant purple spider thing showed up, via teleportation.

"So, you are the one who killed Polaris," it said, it a soft, feminine, seductive voice. Somehow that just made me nervous instead of attracted. Probably had to do with facing what could easily pass as the physical form of It.

"Yes, and I assume you are Nashira, correct?"

"Indeed. You have caused us much trouble at Nakto, haven't you."

"Well, I think that just means I'm doing well at my mission to destroy you."

"How humorous. Unfortunately for yo, your journey ends now."

"We'll see about that."

"Very well."

Then she charged at the genetic heroes, who wisely decided to dodge her and begin attacking. Her attack did end up destroying a fair amount of my mechanical forces, but more were already on the way to replace them.

Knowing that fighting up close would be a death sentence against my metallic army, Nashira pulled back and began lobbing giant skulls at my army, knocking a fair amount of units out of commission. I could replace the losses, but then she surprised me by opening several portals on the ground, releasing small, spine covered Darkspore to begin their offensive. Blasting Fiends if I remembered correctly.

Well, alright then. Time to break out Death from Above. I positioned some satellites above Nashira and started bombarding her with lasers from space. Based off what she said (some indeterminate growls mized with extremely filthy language), I think that made her hurt.

Soon, Nashira was on her last legs. That's where she got desperate.

Just as another set of lasers were about to hit her, I found myself facing two Nashiras, which promptly summoned even more blasting fiends to back them up.

Oh yeah, she could clone herself. Figures.

Not that it would help her: I had enough firepower to lay waste to her entire army, so some clones wouldn't change that at all.

First, though, I smashed her clone.

She summoned four more to replace her.

I just sighed and started throwing bombers at her. Soon her clones were gone.

This, coupled with a beat down from the genetic heroes, finally broke Nashira.

Once again, I charged up my commander's overcharge attack. This time, though, I was aiming for her body.

"I hope the souls of the Nocturni enjoy seeing you in the afterlife."

I swear, the subtle hints in her change in posture before the impact of the attack that informed me that she was absolutely horrified by that statement gave me a gigantic smile.

As soon as her body hit the ground, a vortex opened up beneath her and pulled her in. On closer inspection, it turned out she was being pulled in by the souls of the dead.

Wow. They must've really hated her. Glad they got their vengeance.

After hooking up Nashira's mask to a transport (it was an excellent trophy) I started making preparations to leave the planet.... only to receive attempts to communicate from on-planet. When I responded, I found out that it came from the Remnants of the Nocturni Legion, the force that had originally controlled the planet. Arakna and Jinx, two of the Necrogenesis genetic heroes, had been part of said legion, though Jinx had betrayed them for making her people an endangered species. All that aside, they'd thanked me for defeating the Darkspore and allowing them to reclaim the planet. Then, after a moment, they asked me if I intended to take the Darkspore's place as the new ruler of the world.

Really? They thought I wanted to rule this planet as a tyrant?

I quickly assuaged their fears, telling them that I didn't plan on ruling this world; I'd merely freed it from the Darkspore because, as Optimus Prime once said, 'Freedom is the Right of All Sentient Beings'. They seemed very pleased to hear that and thanked me once again for freeing their world. They also promised that they would work tirelessly to rebuild it and help the rest of its inhabitants return to greatness. Considering what I knew about the Legion, namely that they had brutally conquered all that opposed them, I think they were just trying to get me to spare them. On the other hand, Nocturna would really need a lot of work done on it before civilization could be rebuilt, so I just accepted what they said and told them that I would be watching to make sure that they were doing so.

I was pleasantly surprised that, despite my initial fears, they never did go back to being as brutal as they once were.

With that out of the way, I set a course for Verdanth, home of Biogenesis.

Orcus, here I come.

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AN: Read and Review. This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

AN: Halfway through the Darkspore Universe. I apologize if this feels like a bunch of padding, but it will be over soon.

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I found myself once again going through a rather boring arrival at a new world, this one being Verdanth, home of Biogenesis. You know, in hindsight, the Darkspore universe was probably the most boring universe I went to: no real foes that offered me any challenges, nor were there any tangled webs of alliances, spies and secrets to navigate. It just had a bunch of foes to fight, all of whom were woefully underpowered in the face of my progenitor hypertech.

Still, it was fun to beat these guys into the dust.

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It took me a few hours to totally exterminate the darkspore in my LZ, because I really didn't want to demolish too much of the landscape on Verdanth. I think the natives took it as sacred. For me, this meant no flame tanks and very careful usage of artillery, so casualty rates were significantly higher during the skirmishes on Verdanth than they were in similar battles on Zelem's Nexus and Nocturna. Not that this did any lasting damage to my army, though, because seriously, I could rebuild any losses I took.

Once I'd cleaned out the LZ and set up my initial base, though, things really took off. I sent out five different armies to purge the planet of Darkspore, each one paired with five genetic heroes: one of each type. he ones leading this were the Biogenesis heroes: they were really pissed off by how the darkspore had defiled their homeland and desired to make their vengeance as messy and painful as possible. Not that I cared: the Darkspore were a menaced that needed to be cleansed from the cosmos.

Despite the limitations I had imposed on myself, the cleansing of Verdanth was still a short affair, with little notable events occurring besides the fight against the local destructor, Orcus. Though I was briefly surprised when Savage managed to summon a literal horde of angry wildlife that reduced a Darkspore Army into a massive pile of flesh, blood, gore, bone and gristle. Even that, though, wasn't very noteworthy.

As for the fight against Orcus, that was pretty amazing. Though, that could be said of all of the battles with the destructors.

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After several hours of cleansing, I'd reduced the Darkspore to their last stronghold on the planet. Their hordes were on their last legs, having been driven to exhaustion by the genetic heroes and my armies of cold steel (Well, technically it was progenitor alloys, but the idea is the same). Now, it was time to go for the coup de grace.

As soon as I arrived at Orcus' hiding spot, I found myself being contacted by the overgrown locust.

"So, I take it you are the one that defeated Polaris and Nashira?" he asked in a rather odd voice: it was very deep at one moment, only to get screechy at the next.

Now, in the game, the Darkspore didn't talk to you at all, they just howled, screeched and roared. I guess maybe they weren't interested in talking to heroes going to destroy them, but the Outside Context Problem was an entity worthy of conversation.

"Indeed I am, and you will soon be joining your fellow destructors in death, mega-cricket."

"You sound so sure that the outcome of a battle between us is in your favor."

"I am certain it is."

"Well, then, let's put your faith to the test."

Then the ground shook as Orcus, The Devourer of Life unburrowed from the ground and moved to attack

The genetic heroes and my metallic legions responded to this by opening fire..... only for a wall of very, very, very thick thorns to pop up, blocking our assault.

Huh, he could raise walls of thorns. Well played.

Though, not enough to save him: the Biogenesis heroes had given me their permission to use flame tanks here, so it wasn't long before the thorns were roasting.

Not missing a beat, Orcus summoned a small army of tiny creatures to attack my forces, before promptly firing blasts of energy and venom at my armies. I had the heroes pull back, but my tanks and bots got smashed by those attacks. Of course, whenever one fell, two more were ready to take its place.

And with his thorn shield down, not to mention being far smaller than his fellow destructors, Orcus was in for a lot of hurt. The first volley of hits alone made him bleed HUGE amounts of blood, to point I was surprised he was still able to stand after that attack. Even more surprising, he only seemed annoyed by the attack.

As for his response, he ate some of his own minions. And the minute he swallowed them, I could see his wounds rapidly begin to close.

Great, he's got a metabolism so fast that he can heal himself by eating his minions, and I wasn't sure how many he could summon. Oh well, time for More Dakka.

First, I gave the genetic heroes a new set of orders: kill Orcus' minions (which were apparently called biosoids). From there, I renewed my assault on the Bio Destructor, once again forcing him to eat his minions. Only this time, due to the heroes killing several of the biosoids, he didn't heal nearly as much.

Things soon fell into a pattern: Orcus would summon his minions, I would attack him while the heroes would kill the minions, he would eat his remaining minions, and then the process would repeat. Occasionally, he would raise the thorn shield again, which my flame tanks and the Plasmagenesis heroes would soon reduce to ash. It wasn't long before Orcus was out of commission.

I briefly considered letting the heroes get the kill, but when I asked them, they refused the offer: they didn't have anything personal against him, and I'd really been the one who'd beaten him. With that discussion settled, I moved in for the killing blow: instead of using my commander's overcharge attack, I just walked up to him and put one of my commander legs over his head.

"Time to get squished, you overgrown cockroach."

I swear, the look on his face was priceless.

Then the foot came down and Orcus head was reduced to pulp. Somehow, his mask survived that attack unscathed, aside from being drenched in blood and poison. After his body went limp, giant roots emerged from the ground and pulled him beneath the soil, reducing the Devourer of Life to mulch. What a fitting end.

After that, I hitched his mask up to a transport, then set a course for Cryos.

Three down, three to go.

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AN: Read and Review. This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

My arrival to Cryos wasn't all that eventful, though seeing the planet from orbit really ended up unnerving me.... not for no good reason, though: you see, the planet's core has cooled down, meaning no volcanoes, which means that the atmosphere isn't being pumped full of greenhouse gasses. Now, this might sound-like a good thing to some of you, considering how Earth's greenhouse effect is melting the poles and turning Antarctica green. Well, the problem is, Cryos has so few greenhouses gasses in its atmosphere that the entire world has become a frozen wasteland, where all natives species have to fight tooth and nail for even the humblest scraps of meat. The Crogenitors looked at this situation, thought it was mucked up, and attempted to rectify it by putting a 'white hole' in Cryos' core, which would generate an unlimited amount of heat and hopefully reignite the core.

The end result of this?

The core ended up covering parts of the planet in lakes of lava, while failing to fix the frozen surface. Now hailfire peaks compose a huge portion of the planet's surface, making life even harder for the natives. And that is discounting the Darkspore.

Needless to say, I had my work cut out for me.

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My arrival and efforts to set up an F.O.B. went as well as they had the previous three times I'd made planet-fall on Darkspore infested worlds: complete success.

After that, well, I ended up making an interesting discovery.

You see, according to the game's lore, the Crogenitors had left behind some ancient weaponry on Cryos that, if accessed, could help end the Darkspore and ensure the galaxy's freedom. Unfortunately, they had to abandon the technology due to being attacked by a new kind of Darkspore: the Destructors. Now, the facilities that had contained the technology were occupied by Darkspore. Whatever it was they left behind, I wanted it.

Of course, accessing it was a real challenge: the Darkspore didn't want people getting that technology, so not only was the area heavily guarded, but the Darkspore had set up explosives to destroy the facility if it was breached. Needless to say, a frontal assault was not an option.

Fortunately, I already had a way around this.

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On a hillside near the abandoned labs, I had a land scout survey the area, checking for any signs of Darkspore activity. While the Darkspore offered a fair amount of creatures guarding the facility, most of the forces that I assumed were sent to defend it lived in a set of caverns to the East of my target.

Good for me.

The first thing that told the Darkspore something was up was the sound of engines flying overhead, followed by the explosions as my bombers dropped their cargo. Tanks and bots soon joined the fray, causing the Darkspore to flood out of their caverns to fight my army. As did some of the Darkspore stationed at the facility.

Exactly as planned.

Once the facility was less protected, I sent the Genetic Heroes inside to plunder its tech. Leading the assault was Seraph-XS, the last of her kind, the combots. Seraph was designed for infiltration, so she was easily capable of being stealthy if she wanted to, but to my surprise, all of the heroes were acting stealthy for this mission, even if they groused about it like Zrin and Arborus did.

Well, works for me.

With most of the Darkspore busy fighting a losing battle to defend their warrens, the genetic heroes were easily able to slaughter their way through the remaining ones inside the facility. Once they were dealt with, I ordered the heroes to deal with the explosives: some were disarmed, some were moved very far away and blown up, and one was chucked into a lake of lava.

With those out of the way, time to start searching for that Crogenitor tech. I had Seraph link me into the lab's computer and got to work, while my starship started scanning the ruins to get anything I missed.

For the most part, the technology was just advanced countermeasures to EDNA, such as ways to cure corruption by it and weapons tailor made to fight it. I downloaded the designs for some of the anti-EDNA and modded it into all of my units to give them anto darkspore munitions, so as to make the rest of he fighting easier. There was also some info on the white hole, which I decided to keep for later: an unlimited heat supply would inevitably find some use for my armies.

Other than that, though, there wasn't really much intel in the labs, which was rather disappointing.

But there was one last thing that had me interested: apparently, one of the cryogenics buildings in the laboratory was still active, and contained something inside. Something alive. I decided to go and warm-up the lab, eager to see what was inside. I ordered Krel to enter that building as well, just to have some firepower on standby.

Needless to say, I was surprised when I found out what the facility was filled with: eggs.

Well, not just eggs: it had eggs and embryos inside, in varying stages of development: some were just barely fertilized egg cells, others were embryos mid-way through development, and the eggs were ready to hatch.

According to my scans of the eggs, the creatures inside resembled dogs.

Also, Krel was staring at the eggs in a way that indicated disbelief.

Why was he doing-wait.

I used the scanner on the eggs again, this time to bring up their genomes. Then I crossed referenced them with Krel's genome.

When the comparison was done, a total of 50% of the eggs shared mulitiple genetic similarities to Krel. Which meant these eggs were his eggs.

But, how could that-

I pulled up the data on the cryo-lab again, then examined the research log to see if that would illuminate me as to what was going on.

Sure enough, I found what I was looking for.

Though we have not been able to locate the last of the Crogenitors, our victory over them in battle is all but assured. Their fortress on Perceptum has fallen, and we are already purging the last remnants of their civilization from the cosmos. Soon, all that will be left of them is ruins..... and this. This is my final insult to Ptyron and the rest of our foes: these are the last of the eggs belonging to the beast they call Krel, the few that we did not corrupt. Alongside them are frozen embryos gathered from research labs that had tried to preserve the species from before the Darkspore even existed. All of that work, now worthless. Still, it makes for a good trophy.

-Merak, the Devastator

........Well, someone really couldn't just settle for crushing his foes, could he?

Not that I'm complaining: Merak's pettiness meant that I now had a way to save Krel's species, and I was not about to let that go to waste.

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Look, I know that, in the grand scheme of things, saving just one species might seem a small victory, but it was still a victory for me.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

After moving away the items I'd obtained from the lab on Cryos, I decided it was high time I finally faced off against Merak. Looking back, I think he was the Destructor I hated the most, not because he was tough, but because of how petty he was. I mean, not only did he keep the remnants of Krel's species both as a trophy and as a giant FUCK YOU! to the rest of his kind, he destroyed the greatest repository of Crogenitor knowledge, the Perceptory, simply because he could never reach that level of greatness. I think the only reason I never saw his pettiness firsthand was because I hadn't really done anything to tick him off.

But any ways, on to the fight.

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When I finally arrived at the 'arena' of sorts where Merak lived, I was surprised by how quickly he contacted me.

"So, you are the one who has been cutting our kind down. Interesting that one without the powers of E-DNA can do so much damage to us."

"You flatter me."

"Hmph. Well, I assume that you wish to fight now, as do all of the genetic heroes you have brought with you."

"Indeed."

"Well then, let the battle begin."

Merak promptly entered the field viewing jumping out of a snow drift and landing hard in the 'arena' he lived in. From there, he went on the offensive, shooting fireballs and lightning at me. The genetic heroes scattered to avoid taking fire while my machines opened fire and scored a titanic amount of damage.

Then Merak shot arcing lightning at my bots and tanks, cutting down quite a few of them. A loss, but not a great one.

And he knew that, seeing how he began summoning his own minions to face mine. Called Blazers, they focused on attacking my machines, leaving plasma trails behind them as they charged into battle. I simply ordered the heroes to avoid that and focus on him while my machines dealt with his minions.

Soon, we'd whittled him down quite a bit. At this point, he started slamming the ground, sending up geysers, obliterating a fair amount of my army and forcing the heroes to once again take evasive action. Unfortunately for Merak, my grenadiers could fire from places he couldn't raise the geysers, which, combined with a couple of bombing runs, put Merak on his last legs.

Unfortunately, he had one last attack left: he fired some rocks into the air, which came back down as meteors. These actually put a large dent in my artillery and aircraft, allowing Merak to turn the tide.

Unfortunately for him, the plasmagenesis heroes took the opportunity to attack Merak will all of their might, ready to seek vengeance on the one who had conquered their world. By the time they had finished with him, he was barely alive, and really ticked off.

My response: raise my commander's main gun and fire the overcharge.

"Boom."

The explosion that followed was pretty spectacular. Somehow, his mask survived that, which I took as a trophy.

I then set a course for Infinity as my machines began purging the last of the darkspore on Cryos: only one world remained before I faced the corruptor.

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Meanwhile, on Infinity........

Arcturus, like all Darkspore, sensed the death of his fellow destructors. These were titanic losses, but with them came opportunity to learn and grow. And with this, become even better at defeating all resistance.

Arcturus reviewed the last memories of his fellow destructors prior to their termination. As all of the darkspore shared a collective memory, it was very hard to defeat the dakrspore with the same trick twice. The only reason this new foe had succeeded against them with the same strategy twice was a combination of numbers that managed to give his minions a run for their money and the assistance of the genetic heroes. Still, this could be worked around.

In particular, the great warbot leading the metal hordes seemed to be what controlled the smaller ones. If he could dispose of it, the rest would likely follow.

Hmmmm

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All across Infinity, the silent remnants suddenly rang with the sounds of industry as the machines within them awoke. Factories reacted, generators sprang online, and assembly lines whirred to life.

In a few hours, the new foe would arrive on this planet.

And when he did, he would be in for a surprise........

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AN: A short chapter, I know, but ultimately, I didn't really need much detail to describe the battle against Merak. Commander Flame is certainly in for a surprise when he arrives at Infinity, though.

So, Read and Review. This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

Well, here we are: Infinity, one of only two real challenges I faced in the Darkspore Universe. The planet's surface was covered entirely in metal, as it had gradually become an ecumenopolis, which is the scientific term (at least I think it is) for a city that covers an entire planet. I don't mean an artificial world designed like a city (which would basically be a civilian version of an annihilaser), I mean that the planet used to have a normal biosphere that was gradually replaced with urban environments until most if not all of the planet was covered in city buildings. A side effect of this was that the planet had a permanent smog-layer on it from absolutely colossal industrial sectors, whose operation had contributed to the collapse of society on the planet and the extinction of most of its native lifeforms.

The sad thing was that, originally, the planet had actually had a thriving biosphere, as the machines that had been there had managed to successfully maintain the planet's ecology while working on their goals. But then the Darkspore had shown up and ruined everything. Now, according to the signals I had been picking up on my way to the planet, the last remnants of Infini as they were called had holed up in Infinity Prime, the planetary capital, with a couple of mutant beings fighting a guerilla war against the Darkspore in the outer areas. It looked like, for once, I could count on having backup in the coming battle.

Once we were in range, I returned to sublight speeds so I could locate a landing sight, ideally around Infinity Prime to relieve some of the pressure on the rebels. To my surprise, I found a large amount of what appeared to be debris in the planet's orbit. I could make out some mutation mines, which the Darkspore used to spread their infestation, but the others were a mystery-

"Warning, Detecting missiles approaching starship," announced HELIX, "taking evasive action now."

Both my flagship and the crogenitor vessel that HELIX was within quickly moved out of the way as barrage of missiles flew right past us. A few shots from my ship's lasers ensured they would no longer be a threat, but I soon found out that more were on the way. Additionally, the rest of the 'debris' I'd seen suddenly began to move or, alternatively, fire at me, forcing me to retreat a little bit.

What was going on- oh. That.

Yeah, should've seen that coming.

You see, Infinity was the home of most of the Crogenitor fleet, with its core (which was somehow inexhaustible) providing huge quantities of metal needed manufacture and maintain the fleet. They had been constructing orbital defense platforms to further bolster the planet's defenses when the Darkspore had arrived, reducing the planet to its current state. IT looked like the Destructor on the planet, Arcturus, had decided to reactivate the factories to get an edge on me. While he hadn't been able to build anything really dangerous, as long as the defense grid and fleet was up, I couldn't make planetfall.

Well, time to solve that.

"Any suggestions on dealing with those ships?" I asked HELIX.

"Analysis indicates that they have some kind of teleportation blocking technology aboard them, so any attempt to deploy the genetic heroes aboard them is likely to end in failure. However, you should already be able to destroy the orbital guardian ships and turrets with the machines you have."

Really? "How?"

"The ships and defense platforms were designed to fight ships of or greater size than themselves, and there are only a few squardrons of fighter-craft available to attack your own. As your own production abilities currently outstrip those of Infinity by several orders of magnitude, I recommend simply deploying your fighters to destroy the defenders and supporting with any weaponry you have aboard your starship.

Oh. Well, that could work.

And that was what I did: fighters began emerging from my ship, attacking all that they could find. The few ones that the Darkspore sent at me actually scored quite a few kills, being pretty tough and powerful in their own right, but ultimately, quanityt trumped quality here, and it didn't take me long to demolish the last of the fighters. After that, I started taking on the larger ships and the defense platforms.

Do you know how satisfying it is to watch a Starfighter or bomber destroy a ship several orders of magnitude larger than itself? Well, its very, very, very satisfying, as I can attest to from personal experience, and I got to witness it happen a couple dozen times during this battle. Oh boy was it awesome.

Once the defense platforms were down, I decided to join my starships in finishing off the enemy: I opened fire with antimatter torpedoes, which were each a one-hit kill against the starships. It only took me a few minutes to wipe the field clean of the remaining Darkspore fleet. After that, I determined a suitable location on Infinity (one close to Infinity Prime) and prepared to drop. Time to take back Infinity.

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AN: Read and Review. This is Flameal15k, signing off!

 

[Flameal15k]

Once I broke through the Darkspore's orbital defenses, things quickly fell into line with how they had been on the other four worlds I had previously visited and conquered: my forces quickly managed to overwhelm the Darkspore and set up a beachhead, from which I tapped into Infinity's inexhaustible core to begin building up my army. My arrival forced the Darkspore to concentrate on dealing with me, giving the people of Infinity time to recuperate: the Darkspore had been attacking them nonstop for the last few weeks, and their current estimates had indicated they would fall within the next week if no help had arrived. Because of this, they were grateful for my arrival.

Not wanting them to suffer too much, I sent a few fabbers to help them reassemble some of the city's architecture: mostly the defenses, but also things like life support, power, and infrastructure, and any hospital they could find, because I thought that they had suffered enough.

Of course, that meant just a little more work for me.

See, several cybergenesis darkspore were actually just machines that somehow gained cybernetic bits, which meant they could be mass produced from factories. Since there were huge factory sectors all over Infinity, this meant that the Darkspore here could reasonably match my numbers, which meant I was in for a long battle.

Or rather, I would've, but that wasn't exactly what happened: while they had the numbers to match me, the Darkspore lacked orbital control, meaning that I could just use satellites to slowly whittle down their army into nothingness. Suck it, fools.

Soon I overtook heir numbers and began clearing paths toward the factories. While destroying them would cut down on the Darkspore numbers, I also knew that the factories to assist in the restoration of Infinity was the Darkspore were purged, so I had reservations against demolishing them. Fortunately, the Infini had a solution to this: they'd managed to recover the shutdown codes for all of the factory sectors, so all I needed to do was set up a radar tower in range of each factory and deliver the shutdown codes. THese would shut them down for a few hours, after which point they could be reactivated manually (that is, from inside the factory). Plenty of time to rid Infinity of the Darkspore.

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Malak knew not of the origins of the giant war machine, only that it served the Crogenitor resistance. Yet, despite this, he had quickly grown to trust the machine after it had worked tirelessly to help his people. It had sent smaller machines to fix Infinity Prime's defenses, roads and hospitals, allowing the exhausted resistance to begin recuperating its losses, which was very helpful for moral. Now, it seemed that the machine was moving to face the great metal one that lead the Darkspore here.

While he did not doubt the machine's power, he was still worried about its course of action: the metal one had been moving great amounts of alloys and circuitry toward his base, for reasons Malak could not follow. He knew, however, that they likely had something to do with the great machine that was destroying the Darkspore and was probably some kind of counter measure against it.

Thus, Malak had gathered the few among his friends in the resistance who could still fight and taken one of the remaining mag-rails that functioned toward the metal one's abode, ready to help the machine that had saved his people.

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When I finally arrived at Arcturus' base, I was surprised by how quickly my opponent introduced himself.

"So, you are the one who has caused us so much trouble, am I correct?"

"Yes, that's me. Your kind has been ruining the lives of all the creatures in this galaxy, and I cannot stand by and let this happen."

"Hmph, words spoken by a true hero," replied, a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "though I must ponder, are you really so heroic, hiding behind this metal giant of yours?"

"Says the being who sits in a giant hover-chair."

"Touché. Well, now, I suppose it is time we battle."

"Yeah, it is."

"Well then, TREMBLE BEFORE THE MIGHT OF ARCTURUS THE CYBERNETIC COLLOSSUS!"

With that, Arcturus' chair finally floated into view and started blasting me with missiles. He then followed that up with a slam into the ground, forcing me and the genetic heroes to evade. After landing, he fire several lasers and things that looked like chainsaws at me.

Overall, though, it was a rather boring fight. My army was able to inflict a lot of damage on his chair, and he wasn't able to b=put too much of a dent in them before reinforcements arrived to replenish my forces. Additionally, the genetic heroes were able to put the hurt on him, forcing him to evade or get pounded. Eventually, he tried summoning his own minions, robotic bombs called exploder scarabs, which homed in on my army and, well, exploded. While they did put a few dents in my army, my numbers soon overwhelmed his, and after that, it wasn't long before he was on his last legs.

So why did he seem to be happy about this.

"Well, this has been a long, hard battle, my metallic foe, and you've indeed inflicted quite a few grievous wounds on me. But, in the end, I think you efforts were meaningless."

"Why's that?"

Just then, he hit a button on his throne. The minute he did, gigantic turrets popped up, along with a trio of pylons that generated a shield around Arcturus. The turrets quickly began to lay waste to my army, and were actually strong enough to shrug off my return fire.

"That's why. Did you really think I would not be able to adapt to your strategy of using overwhelming numbers to defeat our own? Your numbers are impressive, but unless you have something else up your sleeve, numbers will only go so far. And now, your luck has run out."

Then the turrets focused on me.

My computers indicated that I would be able to escap before they destroyed me, but that would give Arcturus time to adapt to my strategy and troops, which was something I did not want to happen. Reviewing my options, I noticed that my ship was relatively close by.... and it was fully armed, as always.

I quickly lined it up for a bombing run. I doubted Arcturus would be able to deal with a mega-bomb on his head.

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Malak and his friends had traveled for some time when they finally caught up with the machine, which was engaged in battle with the metal one. Arcturus, it called itself. The destructor was seated on a chair, which he used to bombard the machine with a variety of attacks. Still, the machine was clearly winning.

Malak wished to help, but he knew that he would only get in the way if he intervened directly. His attention, however, to a series of large power cables littered around the battlefield. Their purpose eluded him, but I was likely something to do with the Darkspore.

Then the Destructor pressed a button on his chair. Instantly, turrets sprung up, while a trio of pylons emerged around the Destructor, generating a mighty shield that spared him from all harm.

And as the shield came online, the pylons surged with power.

In that moment, Malak knew what to do: he ordered his more digitally skilled comrades to hack into the turrets, while he got to work setting up explosives on the cables. When the last set was deployed, he made it out of the blast radius, then hit the detonator.

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To say the explosions were a surprise was putting things lightly. However, shortly after they happened, Arcturus' shields fell offline, as did his turrets.

"What the-?! GET BACK ONLINE!"

To my surprise, they did come back online...

Then they pointed at Arcturus..... just as my ship arrived.

The resulting explosion was spectacular.

The only thing more spectacular was that Arcturus WAS STILL ALIVE. However, he knew he was wounded and quickly began to retreat. Not that that was going to happen.

I quickly took aim at his chair and charged up the overcharge.

"Time to fall from heaven, you metal weakling."

Then the attack went off and hit Arcturus, knocking him off of his chair as it exploded. The defeated destructor crawled around feebly for a moment before going up in an explosion that left the ground stained with oil. Somehow, his mask survived this.

I quickly got a transport to take the mask back up to my ship, before contacting the Infinity Resistance to inform them of Arcturus fall. It was about that time that I learned that a resistance team had set off to help me some time ago, but that the main resistance had lost track of them. I guess that they were the guys who caused the explosion that shutdown Arcturus' shiled. I informed the reistance of this, asked them to thank the members who had done this, then set a course for Scaldron.

Now, Corruptor, your end has come.

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Scaldron, primary base of the Darkspore.

Xylem sighed. The last of the Destructors was dead, leaving only him to lead the Darkspore. While he was fine with this, the fact that they had been annihilated due to the actions of one being was worrisome. It was clear that the Darkspore were up against a foe unlike any they had ever met before. Clearly, the Crogenitors had found new allies.

Then, he turned to one of the many Darkspore that accompanied him wherever he went.

"Go to the fleet and inform them to take up defensive positions. The machine will soon be upon us."

The creature moved to carry out his orders with haste, with the rest following.


When he was, at last, alone, Xylem activated a holoprojector near him and found himself facing a diminutive cybernetic creature, which, on its own, would seem rather assuming to most, if perhaps a little menacing.

"So," began the Darkspore, "are you sure this is the same one that you have..... dealt with before."

"Indeed," replied the cybernetic being, "and we will provide our assistance to you once more in exchange for allowing us to purge this foe."

"Well then, lets not waste any more time talking. I've already sent one of my servants to get your fleet ready for battle. Please make sure that they make our mutual foe pay dearly for his transgressions."

"Of course. Long live the Corruptor."

With that, the conversation was terminated, and Xylem chuckled and let a small smile creep onto his face.

"The Crogeitors may indeed have new allies....... but so do we."

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AN: Well, only two more chapters left until the Darkspore universe is over.

Just a heads up, the technology obtained from this universe will be discussed after those two chapters, since I want to get to the next arc soon.

Also, most of the genetic heroes on Infinity share a mythological theme naming pattern (Titan, Goliath and Seraph), which is why the resistance member that showed up in this chapter is named Malak (which is both the name of a Sith Lord from KOTOR and the Hebrew word for angel.

So, Read and Review. This is Flameal15k, signing off!