The Futility Wars

by Magnus Thollander

  Redmond felt an incredible painful tug and was flung across the stars onto a planet with the speed of meteor, and he groaned in pain the pit he was now inside, he rose to his knees and his eyes widened and the sight in front of him. "Redmond, Shake it off, and get up. We need to talk." Redmond shook his head and slowly rose to his feet and followed that man he saw so rarely, but he felt the fluctuating power from his entire being which was usually hidden and reserved like a dagger in a sheath.

  Redmond entered what looked like a log cabin and did a double take, it was ancient but clean, no dust no electronic equipment at all but there were lights active without any power source unless it was buried in the ground, he sat down on one of the wooden chairs.

  "Good, I am gonna give you a crash course on how to operate in this field, You have the same psionic alignment as me which i knew of course, else i would not have prepared so well to catch you before you entered that furnace and burnt forever in its heat." Matthias said.

  Redmond was still stunned and shocked at the whole situation, and he listened while trying to get his bearing, "Redmond, Imagine a pitcher of water, and a glass. Then pour the water into the glass and drink it. Do it now." Matthias said, and Redmond closed his eyes and tried to make a pitcher appear.

  After a few minutes he heard a sigh and opened his eyes, "This is gonna take longer than i expected, you will need to be at least strong enough to defend and hide yourself from the psychic energies the enemy projects or else you will die here. And i assure you it's not as pleasant here as it is out there in the universe. Now, Do it again before Ricardo dies."

  Redmond shook and spoke "Dies? Where is he? Can you not save him?" Matthias shook his head, "I can save him, but i will not save him. They know me, and they know i am here somewhere, hidden from them and if they find me they will exile me. They are too many for me to destroy which is why i sent the orders for humanity to ascended to their rightful place. We will invade his place with billions of psychic's trained to destroy or capture this place, Futility will end without their hive and it's leaders, which are here. They can send orders from across the planes as i call it, most ineffectively and it takes them years for the primitive futility soldiers to translate and act on it, which is why we are on a time-schedule, they already sent orders to bring their entire fleet down to the milky way. We got a few hundred years at most before they bypass my fleets."

  Redmond saw images appear in middle of the room like a holographic image, "This is the latest feeds and orders sent, I have managed to find the strings connecting to their hives which gives me all the Intel i need on them, and their number is truly infinite. They make trillions of new ships and soldiers every minute, every second from the core of the universe itself. They are a virus or bacteria simply existing to do one thing, kill everything. Holding out was never an option and fleeing were never the solution, they already surrounded the entire universe. They are slowly crawling inside from all directions."

  Redmond rubbed his chin, "But the ARK's? They can outrun and flee the futility forever, were they not designed to escape and bring everyone to safety? Are you saying everything you done was pointless?" Matthias laughed at Redmond statement, "You are right the Ark's can escape the futility forever, and most of the portal technology can send us away from them, we can extend humanity and the other races we wish to take along for many millions of years, but you know not the real end-game here. The futility is not concerned with us or any life in the galaxy, it's a ruse."

  Matthias changed image to a golden light which resembled a sun, "Redmond, Science is the ultimate counter to spirituality and the psychic energy i have learned, but what if one trumps the other? What if countless souls of the dead lashed out in one effective attack wiping out all life in existence from anywhere at anytime? This is what we are fighting, the futility are just speeding things along. The universe is impossible to stop and operates at a strict schedule and that time is soon, i do not know when but i know this. Everyone in the universe will die, and the universe itself will be reborn in time. A purge, that has happened many times before humanity evolved."

  Redmond's eyes widened, and he spoke "So, We need to conquer this place and humanity will survive the purge? We will be able to keep our people alive if we all "die" and end up here? Will we become like the enemy then?"

  Matthias laughed, "Redmond, The universe will do a purge which i do not hate it for, but the futility cannot outlive another cycle, they are billions of years old, victors of luck in a purge that wiped out and reset the universe as a whole, the old denizens of this place were wiped out just like we plan to do with the futility, they call this a paradise but this is just a shelter for the enlighten and the lucky alike."

  Matthias changed the hologram again, "Ricardo is one of the keys the futility need, the list is not something produced by the futility, but the universe itself. It echoes time and space, those who will end up here "naturally" will be called out in the void, they have listeners simply writing down names and putting it on a list for their soldiers to purge, they are not doing it to stop us or because they fear us. But for their entertainment, Redmond what would you do if you lived forever capsuled in a place where every whim and dream could become true for a billion of years?"

  Redmond thought about it "If there was no struggle, or any effort to earn what you want then it would make the object or desire pointless..." He closed his eyes "Son of a bitch."

  Matthias nodded "That's right, Ricardo is simply an actor in a play while they slowly sip on his soul, feasting on it one piece at a time, They will corrupt him and slowly degrade his defenses, so they can increase their own powers and in process they get the entertainment they want for a few hundred years, We are nothing more than Jesters in a royal court to them, applauded for our foolishness then chopped off at the head when they are tired of us."

  Matthias rubbed his palm and then changed the image again, "This is a memory of the Ortha known as Cheddu, I have managed to contact him in secret and woke him up from his slumber successfully, he is one of my "agents" in this place, and in return i promised him i will bring the Ortha with me to this place, this is one of the few i managed to turn. Their souls are dying the longer they are here, but people like us with the black light, or as i call it the outsiders, our souls are eternally linked to the void around the universe and this place, we can go freely between the two since we have left our body before to become warriors, something changed our soul so the furnace no longer pulls on us."

  "Now begin practicing earnestly before Ricardo's soul is lost and will never be able to return." Matthias said and Redmond got back to imagine the pitcher of water, He heard the door close and Matthias left the cabin.

  He looked out at the stars and vanished from the spot and entered what looked like a planet filled with lava, he stepped on a rock and vanished into a chamber filled with different lifeforms and races, he nodded and sat down.

  "Matthias, You are right the futility is going the route you have suspected, we have managed to convince and pull out everyone from their clutches and empty promises of salvation for our races, and we are fully committed the plan you put forward. In return, we want you to bring our people to safety and our allies as well." Driccul said with his stout frame with his eight arms and gills on his necks, he would have gurgled like a fish if he was not in this place where everyone could communicate.

  Matthias nodded "Humanity will need all the help we can get with people with powerful psychic powers, and the mass of numbers as well. But i will warn you, this will light all the red flags and there is preparation being made to defend your territories and establish portals for the final battle as well, but i will say this once again, There will be no return for the most of you. You are all damaged from being affected by the place for too long, the furnace has imprinted your souls, you would probably never survive the return trip here."

  The room was quiet until a tiny short squirrel looking alien spoke "I am ready to sacrifice, I been here the longest and i know the powe
r that has gripped me and feasts on me constantly, i will return to the universe and rally my people to the cause, for we know there is no hope for them unless we win this war, this place will suit our need for our people until we can venture out again, more united and perhaps more mature."

  Matthias nodded and waved his hand a giant cylindrical gate appeared in middle of a star cluster, they all stood still in space staring at the gate activating and anticipating the return to their mortal bodies and comrades, there was a click and the portal opened throwing a gust of air into the space which were impossible, but here it was blowing the soft wind.

  "Good luck, I will return to the universe soon as well, my wife has been informed of what she need to do, and there will probably be portals open in your territories already, Convince your stubborn people, and we will meet again for the final battle for our people!"

  Matthias yelled and the aliens rushed into the portal one by one.

  After the portal closed and everyone left Matthias turned around and saw the leader himself standing behind him, Ler'ren. He smiled and said with a snide "Took you long enough." The futility clicked his mandibles together and entered into a combat pose, Matthias knew this was just posturing and the real battle was the mind itself, he was not powerful enough to defeat this "bug" but neither was the bug powerful enough to defeat him.

  The mind was a powerful place and was easier to defend than attack, which is why the futility played the parlor games on the subjects arriving here, no matter how unskilled you were you would natural defend from someone peeks into your head, and humanity was natural stronger in that part than most alien species, the Ortha were probably the weakest in that aspect.

  He clicked his mandibles again and then changed into a human, "Matthias, or should i call you S-4XN-001, You are only delaying the inevitable, you think those people will ever be a threat to our rule? We that have been here since the dawn of this galaxy, we have watched countless people die over billions of years and there was only one common thing, my people survived. And we will survive whatever you have planned, Human." Ler'ren said while sipping on a wine cup in his hand, a powerful trick.

  Matthias knew all the little tricks and the wine cup was a simple one to put someone in a calmer mood, Ler'ren would strike immediately if he thought he had the upper hand, but Matthias was too calm and uncaring for the Futility leader. There was a stare down and Matthias could not move for he was being tracked and discovered now, he would escape immediately if more of the futility showed up but for some reason they took their time and Matthias knew why.

  He was being stalled here, so they could slurp up the soul of Ricardo and the rest of the countless powerful beings ensnared in their dream, while strengthening the futility as a whole, He was going to bluff his way that he nowhere else to go since he could not reveal Redmond hidden in his little base on that planet, The big picture did not need Ricardo or Redmond, but it would help immensely. Sacrifices had to be made if needed to be, and at this pace they needed to be sacrificed.

  It felt like eons passed while they stared at each other and finally the futility buckled and vanished, Matthias vanished immediately as well and cleansed off any foreign traces of energy which he was caked in, and the futility leader as well. He did not care about shaking off Matthias energy which allowed himself to be tracked, but they had numbers on him for now but soon reinforcements would come, as soon as he had the weakness of the futility discovered.

  Matthias looked into the universe into a single system and whispered something for over a hour then left to teach Redmond the last of what he needed.

  Everbloom shook his leaves and uprooted himself from his favorite spot, he slowly levitated off the ground and into the temple interior looking for any human to help him with his latest dream, he did not know why, but he was the only one in his species that had dreams, and they were so life-like, and he always wrote them down with the help of his human friends to make him remember.

  He spotted Tammy which were watering his fellow brethren who were singing another song about how water is good, he loved that song but now was not the time. He sent a telepathic voice to Tammy "Tammy, I need help. I had another dream." Tammy laughed and nodded, she telepathically motioned another person to continue watering, and they left to the computer hall, this time Everbloom was coiled around her neck to save time and energy.

  Tammy picked up the pace and ran down the corridor as fast as she could since she knew he would not remember everything so vividly like he used to the longer he took, the dreams were interesting even to her, and she had learned a lot more about her psychic energy from reading it, and she had also shared them with her master and other friends at the temple.

  Tammy sat down at the computer and Ever bloom started to speak, "Everbloom, You need to deliver this message to my wife Seyla, Now i will attach the first stages of upcoming alien contact and how to optimize the injections toward their psychology, they are needed in the final battle as a whole." Tammy wrote it down without thinking about it, and after a hour of writing she stopped and let out a gust of air. Ever bloom swayed happily at his dream and was reading it again.

  Tammy thought it was a weird dream, and she read it, she thought the first part of it was wierd, and then she froze, this was not a dream but something else, she saved the file and pushed a button and sent it to Juliet which was the leader of the temple, this was beyond her understanding, and she thought she knew everything.

  Juliet received a file and opened it, it was from one of the apprentices of the temple which she visited quite often, there were more than a hundred temples scattered across the milky way hidden from sight, but soon to be discovered when the injections started in a few years. She let out a yawn at reading another study about the plants until she read the first line, she scrolled down and saw the formulas and different alien names and physiology and how to-. She rose from her seat and immediately sent the file to her mother, she rushed into her shuttle to go there immediately.

  Juliet rushed into the station where her mother sat, most of fathers clones were stored in this well defended station in middle of nowhere between galaxies, hidden from everyone includes the Cyr. She had never been the same since Matthias vanished beneath that tree to do something nobody could understand, but she hated him for it for leaving her mother so sad and alone.

  Seyla stood up and hugged her daughter which entered abruptly disturbing her sleep by triggering every alarm in the station, she had to manually guide the ship inside past the powerful shields which were constantly spinning and rotating. Juliet separated from the hug.

  "Mother, Father sent another message. And i analyzed Everblooms other dreams, father have been talking through the plant constantly. Look!" she pulled up the files on the computer and activated the holographic projector which filled the room, and put every document side by side.

  Seyla looked at the "dream journal" and she knew it was Matthias words in perfection even containing the code phrase she left with her. "Seems, Matthias struck the first blow, we are going to have to mobilize all the diplomats under our employ to begin starting first contact with these aliens, we have a list of their different characteristics and their whole physiology, We need to start building and remodeling planets for them, so we can strike all at once from the milky way."

  She immediately sat down on the computer and sent the orders to the Cyr to begin her husbands plans, they would reunite soon enough, and she could no longer wait, she missed that man.

  The water splashed up onto the surface when a massive being walked up on the shore and people shook in fear watching his frame, he roared, and they all knelt immediately,"I AM OTEOD, Emperor of the Gur!. I have returned from the endless ocean to lead again!"

  The Gur all cheered and let out roars of relief from their emperor which vanished hundreds of years ago in the bottomless ocean.

  "There will be a race called humans that will arrive to our home soon, we will treat them same or even better as myself, they are important in our goal to
reach the endless ocean of legends, where there is no struggle and the harvest is plenty." Oteod said loudly while his people cheered.

  He felt bit shameful knowing of the other alien races and their technology compared to his people and their stone castles, but he knew his people were few but powerful in the psychic department which was the most needed attribute for the galaxy as of now.

  The tiny squirrel trashed and clawed at the medical professionals that held him down, "Fuzzy of the Green Bark tribe will not be humiliated any further! Release me, i have work to be done! You foolish peasants!" He arrived at the edge of the capital and when he introduced himself to the leading council and after what felt like a second several guards sized him and dragged him into a jail cell and now they were probing and taking samples of him.

  "Enough!" the medical professionals let go and scurried to the corner giving a salute, Fuzzy remembered that voice and stood on his hind legs staring into that familiar face, "It's been a long time, brother." he said while staring into the eyes of his brother, Limmy.

  "Fuzzy, is it truly you? I saw you die on the battlefield evaporated by the powerful beam of energy from the separatists." Limmy said, Fuzzy laughed "Yes, I truly died but i have returned and i need to speak to father and the rest of the leaders, even the separatists. Our peoples live and future depends on it."

  An hour later Fuzzy arrived in front of his father, the leader of the Green bark tribe and a connection to the separatists was here as well in the form of an ambassador, he was just happy his people had a modicum of peace and their population had not crumbled while he was away, the war had been horrible and pointless in the big scheme of things.

  "Brethren, Soon a powerful race known as Humans will arrive to our galaxy, and they are to be respected like an Elder or even a tribal member, our people face a grave threat and i have negotiated with the most powerful existence i know to save our people and bring us from certain doom, there is a wondrous place where we can escape this calamity, but we will need the help of humans to reach it. And make no mistake, they are not to be trifled with." Fuzzy said.