Chapter 9: Dream of a Butterfly pt. 2
Decision made: Nuclear silo
Location: Great colony, Nuclear Silo.
Tinkinzar gazed into the sky, the clouds above great colony darkened as more and more dark particles fell from the air, the sacred home world of Gremlin would soon be swallowed by the swarm. The emperor sighed when he realized that this was Lord Inceptron's plan all along, the machinauts were under his thrall this whole time, guided by his terrible whispers to activate the entirety of Tinkinzar's nuclear arsenal. With what was left of his strength, Tinkinzar crawled back onto his throne. In a twist of irony, as he sat back onto his throne he remembered Vanaduke, soon Tikinzar would suffer the same fate as the previous architect of cradle.
"This is all a curse..." Tinkinzar mused with tears in his wrinkled eyes, "Beyond the clockwork of cradle and the reach of dark swarm... ...What could possibly await us?"
On the nuclear silo ground, KV-103 and captain Thaddea's troops were all that stood between cradle and her annihilation. KV-103 scanned the swarm infested silo and spotted a corrupted ZX-125, the area around her was entrenched by swarm enhanced renegade machinauts. A head on assault would be suicide.
"There is no way in fire storm citadel we can reach there in time before Inceptron swallow the entire colony with the swarm," Thaddea panicked, he looked down and saw one last smelter grenade on his combat harness, "Do you have any idea unit one?"
"The swarm is unassailable, but can be slowed down," said unit one, "We need to damage the swarm field in order to grant us safe passage, you and I need to reach ZX-125 and sever her link with Lord Inceptron, without his puppet, Inceptron will not be able to beacon the swarm and it will scatter."
"Sounds good enough... I will remember this battle when the day I die," Thaddea smirked and hurled his last smelter grenade into the nearest swarm field, with a thundering explosion the swarm was temporarily pushed back. Unit one hurried the gun wolf into the enemy fire and charged pass the entrenched rogue machinauts, Thaddea leaped across the floor hazard along with a few other company veterans.
"YOU HAVE SO LITTLE UNDERSTANDING OF THE SWARM," said ZX-125, "ALLOW ME TO ENLIGHTEN YOU!!!" After raising her left hand, the steel butterfly was darkened beyond all shades of grey, she was now the transcendent of Inceptron himself with the ruinous power of swarm as backup. In the midst of battling the all devouring darkness, Thaddea grabbed onto unit one's gun wolf and together they reached ZX-125, just in time to witness her full transformation. The gun wolf took a bite at the steel butterfly but she shoved back the metal beast with a force field generated by the darkness around combatants. Thaddea and unit one both powered up with their weapon at the face of a seemingly invincible foe.
"WHY DO YOU RESIST THE INEVITABLE?!" ZX-125 scolded Thaddea and KV-103, "JOIN ME IN AN ETERNAL REST, AWAY FROM THE TIREDNESS OF LIVING!!!", with a flash from her blackened beam saber, the steel butterfly slashed at Unit one, the entropy of the swarm crumbled KV-103's armor in a matter of second. Unit one strike back with a swing from the teeth of Ceberus but only inflicted a chink on ZX-125's armor, Thaddea's attempts at damaging ZX-125 also ended in failure as he was sent flying by a scissor kick.
"We can't fight her like this!!!" Thaddea stood back up with his jet hammer as support, "Unit one! The colony is being torn apart! We are running out of time!"
"Unit one!" said Gerallax urgently through the communicator, "Professor Naoka may be dead in flesh, but her brain is still powering ZX-125 and she is been forced by Inceptron to control the machinaut! NAOKA! PLEASE, if you can hear me! Stop this!!!"
"I have tortured her mind for weeks infant..." Inceptron replied through ZX-125, "You cannot perceive the wounds she suffered during those days... she cannot hear you... I peered into her mind, you have a large place in her heart and yet you did nothing to save her from my grasp... you are barely a man, professor Gerallax."
"Why are you doing this?!" Unit one asked, "Why do you seek to doom cradle?!"
"EVERYTHING MUST COME TO AN END..." said Inceptron, "WHAT MUST BE... MUST BE... DEATH TO ALL."
Swarm consumed everything, Gremlins and renegade machinauts alike were swallowed whole, no one was spared, KV-103 and Thaddea rode the gun wolf far enough before they too were crushed by the dark entropy. The sky was now glowing purple, darkening with every second passed, ZX-125 levitated into the air and extended her jet black butterfly wings. She extended her arms and flashed out two dreaded black beam sabers. She then titled her head at Unit one and Thaddea, taunting them to challenge her. But the swarm field was too wide spread now to approach her safely, Thaddea shrugged at KV-103 as he ordered his men to retreat, all seemed lost.
"Unit one, Captain Thaddea! Take cover!" said Gerallax through the communicator on Unit one, shortly after a wave of missiles bombarded the area, weakening the swarm field once more.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" ZX-125 was stunned by the explosions.
"While you boys were fighting," said Gerallax, "I got supreme arsenal's missile systems back on line, glad I brought my lap top with me. Unit one! Strike her down while you can!"
Unit one nodded and charged the gun wolf once again through the damaged swarm field. Getting into hand in hand combat with ZX-125, Thaddea lunged himself into the air and delivered a powerful blow while the steel butterfly was occupied with KV-103. After stunning her, the gun wolf bit off one of her arms and it seemed that the heroes finally got the upper hand.
"IS THIS THE BEST YOU CAN DO?!" ZX-125 dashed back before regenerating her lost arm, "The swarm can fabricate and repair at will... you CANNOT DEFEAT ME! NOW! DESPAIR!!!"
In a decisive charge, ZX-125 ran past KV-103 and severed its left arm clean off from its torso, but unlike ZX-125, unit one could not regenerate. Thaddea tried to support but he too was no match and was stabbed in the stomach by a beam saber, the gun wolf fared no better as it was decapitated by the steel butterfly, putting it off from the battle entirely. Just as Inceptron was about to savor the victory, Unit one stood back up and slashed the Teeth of Cerberus into ZX-125's chest, even with one arm remaining, KV-103 refused to yield.
"You are tenacious, Ultranaut..." ZX-125 lamented, "But even you can see that this world is not worth saving... it must be torn from inside out and be renewed."
"We are not the slaves of your cycle anymore, Inceptron," said KV-103, "We will build our future as we see fit! And neither you or anyone is going to change that!"
"On the contrary, Ultranaut," said ZX-125 as she landed a horizontal strike on KV-103's damaged armor, "I created this planet, I am the only one here who is worthy of the title 'GOD'... abandon your hope and surrender!"
Unit one parried one devastating blow after another, even with one arm, the Ultranaut fought on while still inflicting damage on ZX-125. Inspired by KV-103's defiance, Thaddea swallowed a single capsule of life medicine and returned to his feet. With a powerful dash from his jump back, Thaddea jumped into ZX-125's flank and slammed his jet hammer into her left knee. Steel butterfly was down on her knees by the powerful blow and Unit one finished her with a rend from the teeth of Cerberus, with ZX-125's chopped off, Inceptron's control over the renegade machinaut and the swarm field was severed. Now leaderless, the swarm disintegrated and receded back into the depth of the clockwork. In the aftermath, the entire silo ground was ravaged, blackened corpses of machinauts and Gremlins littered the place, but at last, the day was saved.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Inceptron's voice lingered in the air, "... I see... you do nothing... it was Naoka..."
"She fights you still, Inceptron," said KV-103 as it recovered its severed arm, "Even after she was lobotomized by you..."
"It was a foolish gambit, Ultranaut," said Lord Inceptron, "All she could do was forestall my repair of her precious ZX-125..."
"Long enough for us to defeat you..." said Thaddea.
"THEN BY ALL MEANS, DESTROY ZX-125," Inceptron mocked unit one and the Gremlin captain for the last time, "And it will be my pleasure to drag the stubborn soul of professor Naoka into the swarm."
"The machine god protects all those who fight in the name of truth and science," Unit one rebutted, "And Professor Naoka has proven herself true, her soul is now in machine god's protection..."
"MACHINE GOD?!" Inceptron laughed, "YOUR 'MACHINE GOD' IS BUT AN AMALGAMATION OF YOUR PITIFUL AI CORE, DESTROY THIS MACHINAUT AND NOTHING WOULD BE LEFT OF PROFESSOR NAOKA!"
"The one who had nothing can still have faith..."
(That concludes the steel butterfly chronicle, the epilogue will be out soon and as always, thanks for the voting. As a final note, this story is the your creation, the reader, without your choices, Unit one's journey would never have been the same, so a big applause to yourself and I will see you next time!)
Chapter 9: Dream of a Butterfly pt. 1 (alternate titles: Nothing Remain (nothing), Say Goodbye to Yesterday (core) )
Decision made: Nuclear silo
Location: Great colony, Imperial palace.
"I am glad to see that you are still loyal to the Gremlins," Tinkinzar nodded in approval, however, he himself was too wounded to leave the palace without taking the risk of been assassinated. The emperor sat back onto the steps of his ruined palace and caught breaths from the pain suffered during the fight with ZX-125 supported by waves after waves renegade machinauts.
"I am not here to protect your personal interests, Tinkinzar," Unit one replied, "I am here to clear the names of machinauts."
"I hope you do realize that the citizens of great colony will not be fond of seeing your kinds on the street when this war is over... " Tinkinzar muttered, "I cannot allow you or any machinaut to enter this sacred place ever again without the entire colony go into a riot... "
"But you are the emperor, the ruler of cradle..."
"And yet I hold the tremendous weight that comes with this title," Tinkinzar sighed, "I ruled cradle for almost 10,000 years, I have purged millions, strong and weak, guilty and innocent... all in the name of orders. My friends in the crimson order thought of me as nothing but a tyrant, and yet here you are, trying to save me and my crumbling kingdom, may I ask why?"
"...I can't bear to see the entire clockwork fall into anarchy..." said unit one, "But I still want to know one thing, why did you imprison Inceptron all those years ago despite knowing that even without his interventions, your kingdom will eventually fall? Why are you, or any of us trying to fight the inevitable?"
"... You will understand one day..." Tinkinzar lamented, "When the last shred of twilight vanished from the horizon and the night sets in, the waves of nostalgia will come for you as well... we are feeble beings with even feebler soul, we were born onto this mechanical world in search for a purpose when there were none, yet we urged to find it, so insatiably... is this what it means to be alive? Are you too trying to find that purpose? If so, then truly you are more than just a machine."
After hearing emperor's speech, unit one turned around and headed for the nuclear silo, "Halt", Tinkinzar stood up and summoned a mechanical beast from the interior of the palace, a metal wolf four times the size of KV-103 and was armed with a multitude of high caliber weapons.
"Is that, a gun wolf?" unit one gazed at the metal beast, it looked back at the Ultranaut and hissed in monotone.
"Yes," Tinkinzar smiled, "This was a gift from your ancestor, KV-85 unit three 'Moriah', we fought side by side during the great purge. I still remembered the day he charged through waves of forthjaw renegades to rescued me when I was ambushed and surrounded by the enemies. He died days later at the hands of a siege Golem and I was entrusted with his ride, this gun wolf is yours now. I am too old to ride such a magnificent beast."
"Thank you, emperor," Unit one hurled onto the gun wolf and it hastily dashed across the streets of great colony while heading for the nuclear silo. KV-103 soon saw Thaddea and his fellow soldiers attempting to breach a machinaut blockade, the renegades held strong for they were tireless machines, but Thaddea and his fellow men were drained by the battles fought. Seeing that the odds are now stacked against the Gremlins, unit one rode the gun wolf straight into the blockade and thrashed an opening for Thaddea's men. The gun wolf viciously torn apart the renegade machinauts in close range and dished out volleys of ranged fire upon the snipers.
"ALL THOSE THAT ARE STILL LOYAL TO THE MACHINE GOD AND EMPEROR TINKINZAR!!!" Unit one pointed the teeth of Cerberus at the silo front gate, "ATTACK!!!"
"FOR THOSE WHO HAVE FALLEN!!! WE FIGHT IN GLORY!!!" Thaddea along with what was left of his shock fang 4th company dashed across the silo fences and pushed forth while KV-103's gun wolf spearheaded the assault. Seeing that her forces were slowly been defeated, ZX-125 panicked.
"I WILL NOT BE DENIED!!!" the steel butterfly ordered last of her reserve troops to hold back Thaddea's men and typed in the nuclear detonation codes onto the console, "Your heroism is all for naught, Ultranaut! The age of machine is here! You can still join us!"
"And be a slave to Lord Inceptron and his misbegotten ways?" unit one questioned rhetorically back to ZX-125, "Nothing you say will diverge me from the path of honor! You still answer for the death of Bismarck and the corruption of my brother!"
Just as unit one's gun wolf was about to charge through the last line of defense, the ground trembled beneath the two warring factions, the silo's ground torn open as the swarm fields creep out from the depth of the clockwork, the ruinous power of the swarm greatly enhanced the renegade machinauts' battle prowess and Thaddea's shock fang army was pushed back under the dreadful influence of the swarm. Against unit one's order, the gun wolf instinctively retreated at the sight of the expanding darkness.
"Your armors are laughable fleshlings!!!" ZX-125 laughed, "The omnipotent core is on my side! I now wield a power far stronger than any depleted Uranium and tungsten alloy!" As the swarm consumed the majority of the nuclear silo, it embraced ZX-125, turning its once pristine armor into utter blackness. After the transformation, the steel butterfly laughed, but her cackling soon became a cry of pain, as if her life was torn apart by the entropy of the swarm.
"Unit one... Gerallax..." ZX-125's agonizing cry shifted with statics as her metal wings were turned black, "KILL ME!!!"
"KV-103!" professor Gerallax urgently contacted unit one, "ZX-125 is professor Naoka! Lord Inceptron manipulated her into putting her own brain into that machinaut's AI core! She is fighting back against lord Inceptron's influence!"
"You are correct infant..." suddenly, ZX-125's high pitched monotone turned low and masculine, "Professor Naoka is right here..." The new voice mocked Gerallax, "... I can hear her... screaming..."
"We will cast you back into the core, Inceptron!" unit one spited at the swarm infected steel butterfly, who was now nothing but Lord Inceptron's puppet.
"No, I think not..." said the dark puppeteer through Naoka's creation, "this mechanical body is well suited for my goal, the renovation of cradle, starting by the annihilation of all living things on this miserable place with the detonation of the entire nuclear arsenal... how does it feel, Tinkinzar... that your creation sealed your own doom?"
Meanwhile on the palace ground, Tinkinzar heard the voice while still treating his own wound, he frowned at Inceptron's mockery but he was too badly wounded to stand back up. "If there is a god out there other than that accursed Inceptron," Tinkinzar prayed, "I hope she or he is on your side... Ultranaut."