The Futility Wars

by Magnus Thollander

  BOOM!

  "Get to cover, incoming!" he heard while laying behind the corner, the attackers started to fire out the broken windows, and he heard glass shatter and the sizzling of plasma and the then he heard the screams. He wanted to look around the corner and see whoever helped him, but he was too exhausted to think, the gunfire ended and it seemed the attackers had won he heard a single persons' footstep approach him, and he looked around the corner to see his face, he saw a gold-black metal armor with a vanguard logo extremely advanced like he used to have when he was in the field back in the "old" days.

  The soldier approached him and pulled him up and then escorted him outside and a tiny fighter landed, he got pulled into the seat and the soldier sat next to him and then pulled up into space they docked in the accompanying super carrier that was waiting in the system. "You are lucky i had a few favors to call in, and when i heard about little Christine little rag-tag gang of do-gooders i had to keep watching like the best show i ever seen." Oleg said while pulling off his helmet and a medical team approached and pulled Zhang into a cabin and it filled with liquid, he looked at Oleg then closed his eyes with a smile on his lips.

  Redmond stood in the command center and was disgusted with himself, The EX-Enforcers and the corporation on Earth, he obviously never expected Oleg to cash in a favor, and he had to do it for his own sanity sake instead of living with the guilt, He hated himself for allowing that psycho save his life in a previous campaign and now wanted a favor, He would have rejected this one instantly until he saw what the people had found out on earth, this was worth Vanguard attention, and they now had it. He ordered a sweep and several hundreds of pods fired down on the planet while he signaled the Earth nations to let him do his work or there would be reckoning, he had already tracked down everyone involved and most of them were at the hidden base.

  No matter how much you tried to hide you could never escape the constant monitoring in the big cities, loose lips sinks ships was an ancient saying and that was the truth here as well. Someone mentions it carelessly to a girlfriend or a co-worker at a bar and someones phone just happen to be active talking to someone else and the powerful microphones would mark your location and hear everything around you, no organization could avoid the technology to do buisness, and they had for most part except actually starting the project, it was mostly a unfulfilled mess of notes and math which was at least hundred years from completion at that rate, but he made no mistake they would complete it, and he was now in control of the 50 billion ships that just entered Sol to get this mission done.

  He had sent his best marines on the job, and they were making quick work of the facility, he just hoped they did not have a nuclear device or something worse hidden in that unsuspecting house, he watched his boys clean out every floor easily while deflecting the plasma shots with their superior armor, they were pretty much impenetrable to plasma shot of any earthen quality, he scoffed at their backwaters security not even wearing armor instead relying on the cheap shield generators that could hardly stand up to half a shot from his arsenal, Shield generators was all fine and dandy if you had a powerful one and if you had a powerful one without any armor on you, you were about to get a lethal radiation dose for activity it closes to your chest. Shielding technology on armor was a frontier earth never mastered, everyone that was officer or above had a special armor that had a shield built it using several high-quality A1 mineral plates that equaled to the size of a battleship, it was not cost-effective but it was extremely proficient at keeping the person in question alive.

  Redmond had taken a tank shell straight on and his shield had shrugged it off last time he was on earth, killing targets for his sector. The soldiers were obviously shocked on both sides, and he just yelled surrender and the tank person ell stepped out orderly, he killed them anyway since they were on the list but it was a nice intimidation factor he liked.

  Zhang opened his eyes on that warm hospital bed, he hated the artificial warmth of a hospital and not the random temperatures of a planet, he looked to his right and checked his condition and the meter was all green he pulled out the connectors to his head and heart that monitored his condition and got into the shower, a medic ran in to double check and turned off the alarm while swearing. He felt the warm beams of water hit his body, and he finally exhaled and relaxed his tense muscles and tried to refocus himself on the now and not the past of almost dying on that shit hole on earth.

  He put on a spare jumpsuit and walked out the door to the nearest cafeteria. A few moments later he sat down with a plate that could only described as a mountain of meat, he started to eat his dinner, lunch and breakfast. He was being watched by the other diners, but he did not care he just chalked it up as jealously for being able to kick ass while these people played around playing soldier in space. He just kept eating and when he was finished he waited for the obvious debrief that was about to happen like always, he sat there for an additional five minutes after eating before he was summoned to the command center, he stood up and walked down the corridor escorted by two really mean and quiet soldiers in full getup, he thought it was bit of a overkill they were all on the same side a few years ago.

  He entered the room and saw several officers screaming out orders, and he watched the video feed seeing cameras mounted on the armor attacking various locations, he sat down on a chair and waited. "You people really like to make a mess of things and ruin everything like always" Redmond said while finally sitting down opposite of him.

  Zhang just waited these vanguard people really liked to do things in their little dramatic way, and he would humor that, they saved his life, so he had to endure the little lashing he was about to receive "You seriously think this backwater scientist ever gonna poison every human in the galaxy with their little drug? They have an idea and money, but they did not have the expertise or the technology their little project was doomed to failure since day one and instead of keeping them busy and recruiting like-minded people and then pluck the seeds instead of rushing, we might have made something out of this information instead of a basic mop up, not to mention the loss of life of four agents, and 8 wounded not including you!" he said while roaring.

  Zhang kept his cool he knew nothing would happen really, he would take the scolding and then return home and wait for the call again, he lost access to the massive databases that were still out there and probably now in vanguard hands considering the temper of the commander.

  "Anything to say, Zhang?" he said with a sigh "You know the information was solid, and they were about to create prototypes, I believe we solved something you had no idea that was going on and that scared you guys, Else you would not have acted with the massive fleet you brought or saving my little life on the planet, we used to work on the same side, and we still do in a way. Face it, Vanguard need us to find the rats hidden in the sewers while you patrol the streets." Zhang said with confidence.

  Redmond shook his head "The Vanguard hate this cloak and dagger shit, we hate that humans fight against humans, and we are only losing people for what? Some coin? There is no way they were going to keep any planets even if they wiped out everyone on it, there exists a invincible armada hidden in the space lurking to take out anyone that tries to do anything remotely close to threaten the stability of the garden and paradise system. I belive that day is coming soon with the rise of these corporations that overreach, Earth is the ultimate house for greed and corruption and it will always be, look at the empty cities where people got forced out for some politician to renovate or make livable but never happens cause it's not profitable to build low incoming housing on the planet. Earth still thinks they are the top-dog of the universe and the consensus of earth is that they are the elite, and they are becoming bolder every day, they know they cannot win a face-to-face fight, and they simply steer the ship so that corporations and people turn against the galaxy. You know the major consensus on earth is that they should be the true rulers of the garden system since humans originated from earth?. Sickening"
Redmond said with a frown.

  Zhang just shrugged his shoulder, he knew about this obviously how could he not with the politicians spewing that nonsense constantly from earth, Earth was the birth of all cultures but people have moved along, and they still stuck two hundred years in the past trying to reclaim that short-lived glory when they were the top dog in Sol and the galaxy, The warriors had changed that status quo, and they never got the memo. "When the operation is over i dont want you poking your nose into vanguard business again, Earth, paradise and the garden is under our watch and believe me we got it under microscope so you stay home raise a family do whatever, but dont meddle again, now get off my ship and take that pirate scum with you" Redmond said, then the two guard stood behind him and motion him to stand.

  He promptly got the message and were led to the nearest shuttle he was promptly dumped in the Luna starbase, and he called transport to the paradise system using his coded ID, when he entered the ship he saw Oleg sitting on a chair and waving him down, he shuddered about the conversation he was about to have.

  "Breaking news: Earth was under siege by the Vanguard forces of the south, they claim several corporations had tried to develop a bio weapon that would break the immune system that the elixir provides and their end-goal was to kill every human in the garden system, our interview with the Vanguard said the elixir is close to foolproof for any bio weapon as long as you had a elixir at hand and limited your exposure, expert scientists agree that pretty much any attempt to infect a human with a poison or gas is bound to fail with their immune system pretty much cycling any poison out of the body instantly, You might suffer from urgent bowel movement or uncontrollable need to pee but nothing dangerous have been developed or should be developed by any nation or individual, Earth council officially voted on a legislation that bans any bio weapon to be manufactured in the Sol system today as a sign cooperation with the investigation" a reporter said.

  S-4XN-001 was extremely annoyed at the humans and their constant grab of his attention when he had been notified and checked the documents, Their plan was going to fail horribly, but the elixir was not foolproof like they said with enough time and energy it would crack. But humanity as a whole would survive no matter how much damage they did, wipe out a trillion people? A few hundreds of years they might just reach that number again, people were even starting to talk about limiting the children in their families but this was not an option according to him, why limit yourself in any pursuit? He was stumped at trying to mine the black matter and what little constructs he had tried to use had been destroyed by the massive forces, How do one catch black matter or whatever that revolving goo around the edges were, He believed the C3 element and it's gas form was the key to surround the black matter, but he could not release the gas into space the black hole would just simply consume it. This was his focus now and when he manages to collect it he had to apply it to his technology.

  Year 2547

  S-4XN-001 finally got his wish of extracting the black matter, and it was such a simple fix to a complex problem, he would simply fire a massive bolt of energy smashing into the black hole to push the dark matter out, and then he would scoop up a few milligram into a special container and then the container transferred to a C3 gas filled environment and the little dark matter kept itself in stasis slowly rotating the dark matter was incredible in its power generation while he tried to push different elements and electrical charges in the container and the results was in, his few milligram of dark matter dwarfed a titan massive A1 engines that were so popular across the other warriors, It did not match the power of his powerful C3 generators he had but if he built one in similar size with several kilograms of material he could probably jump across galaxies and that excited him, he could simply bring himself to the peak, and if he still had his human body activated he would smile.

  Year 2554

  The maiden journey of a kilogram of dark matter was extremely successful, he managed to jump millions of system to the edge of the galaxy and his fuel reserves were at 90%, He had finally conquered the portal drive to its utmost and now he needed to make his sub light, weaponry and other constructs able to channel this power successfully. He wanted to shrink the portal drive instead of housing it on a massive behemoth titan that he had right now, He calculated and processed the information and millions of designs flashed in front of being tested, processed and then adapted instantly, he settled on first project the building of a new mother ship that would house his now dark matter upgrades, he already designed the computer systems and filled twelve hundred titans with just computers as a temporary housing with the new dark matter components that would elevate his brain to the next level of computing.

  Six months later.

  He connected to the new computers, and he saw the flaws and upgrades immediately, all the countless problems that he had stalled on was finally being solved in seconds, and he kept flipping through all his designs and strategies. His mind kept processing and processing, and he simply built a new space station that could now survive inside the depths of the dark matter and would clean out the dark matter at a massive rate that would fulfill his needs instead of the firing system he currently have, the problem that stumped him for so long was so easy to solve now, fire a beam to knock the dark matter free? Why not just simply let the dark matter knock itself out with the force of itself, instead of sucking in matter in a endless destruction he would simply intercept the line in between and the dark matter always jumped onto the matter that entered the circle, he would just let the dark matter jump itself into his container, and he would increase his mining from milligrams to tons, The black hole was a endless supply of power and it was now his. He set his designs for his new mother ships and it would be the best he could ever think of to solve all his problems.

  Seyla noticed a stir in the south, and she saw massive transports heading into dead space filled to the brim with minerals, she was shocked at S-4XN-001 finally making a move and the vanguard noticed the commotion as well, Seyla decided to follow them to their destination no matter how far they went she tracked the ships jump to the nearest portal and it went dark, the vanguard and Seyla wondered what they were connecting too, and they saw a portal open to a unknown system, She slowly followed, and she entered a system in middle of nowhere she had no connection to the network here, and she was barred from any information at all. The ships started to line up, and she saw millions of cargo ships transfer over and line up in a perfect formation, she tried to reach out and got one message.

  "I AM IN NEED OF THE SHIPS AND RESOURCES, YOU ARE NOT TO WORRY. RETURN. DO NOT BOTHER ME." Seyla saw the Vanguard burn back into the portal after receiving the message.

  Seyla ignored the message and repeated that she wanted to talk and meet face to face, she got no answer, so she simply did what she always did to make herself known she docked with one of the massive cargo ships and waited, she knew he would be annoyed at her little stunt, but he would not punish her in any way, She just simply waited for a response and a giant behemoth portal ed into the system, and she got a docking clearance she just went next to ship, and she saw the bubble pulse, and she accepted the transfer and whoosh she was now in a new system filled with a single object, a massive shipyard bigger than anything she had ever seen. She would gasp and be awestruck if she was still a pure human, she simply looked it over and calculated what it was being used for, and she knew it was a new ship probably a portal ship, she darted toward the station and docked in one of the warehouse docks. She walked out the ship and went toward the lift, and she simply stood in for a second until she was transferred to the correct floor where he was waiting.

  "You always bother me at the right moment, seems to be a skill of yours. I just simply wanted to speed things along and you have to poke your head in." S-4XN-001 or Matthias he was known in his human form, Seyla liked to call him Matthias since it made it more personal, and he had not rejected it too much. "What are you planning now? You know the galaxy is in chaos since you left, ever
y warrior in the galaxy are constantly at war, the factions are pretty much in a state of permanent war with losses in the billions every year. Humans outside the garden system is pretty much just a gang of gangster robbing any person they can find, not to mention the advancement in the A1 element that has-"

  "Enough, It's no concern of mine. The garden project is a success and always will be. Nobody will be stupid enough to break the rules there or the portals connecting to it, The southern sector will always be a well guarded zone for those warriors that want to avoid battle with each other. Let them kill each other to grow stronger to fight the futility. All is well as they say." Matthias said.

  Seyla just looked at him helpless of his attitude, he was right in a way, but she felt that cooperation and unity was the answer, not conquest and fear which he modeled it on."You need to step in and show them that there are consequences and then you could go back, they dont fear me, and they should not. I will keep the systems you left to me in check but i will not play the bad guy like you do, the vanguard are doing their best, but they can never match the warriors no matter how much they try, Most people in vanguard are same as me, we only use it when its needed and disconnect from our warrior consciousness from the rest of the day. I only connect myself two hours a day to solve issues, while i keep my humanity for the rest of the day." she said.