The VARIAtech Consulate's Story

...a few, fleeting moments passed. During that time, the air would seem to become tense, and not in some ephemeral, emotional way. Patrons of the bar might actually feel the very fabric of space around them begin to stretch. All at once , almost two dozen black, swirling vortices in the bar would open up, a small cadre of humanoids in tight-fitting black suits silently padding out of the wormholes. The wore black, perfectly smooth and featureless helmets, with various colored stripes glinting on their dark attire.

Meanwhile, out in the streets and in the skies overhead, mechanical behemoths would emerge from similar rifts, thundering across the landscape of Terra. Many appeared as strange fractal, crystalline shapes, or perfect spheres, scintillating with inner light. In orbit above the blue-green planet, strange mechanical contraptions of even stranger proportions would appear, rapidly swarming about the planet in hauntingly beautiful formations. Out further still in the Terra system, legions...hordes of prisms, trapezoids, and other geometries too weird to fathom would render themselves, all oriented towards that blessed third rock from the sun...

"A...rifle." on of the soldiers said in its perfectly modulated voice. It turned to the silent compatriot beside it and blinked its blue light once. "If that is what you wish." it said blankly. It stretched its hand out in front of it and paused for a moment, fingers splayed before Seven. Then, briskly, thin, square strands of what seemed to be the material it itself was made out of began to dribble from its fingertips. These strands interlocked and wound together for a few seconds. When it had finished, it held in its hands what appeared to be a black carbon rod with the vague shape of a stock and grip attached to it.

"Armament." the soldier said in a deadpan voice, before slowly handing the solid block of material to her.

The soldier that had been silent up until now spoke up, its voice soft and perhaps more feminine than the rest. "I am afraid our sudden incursion has fostered some confusion about VARIAtech's intent. We are here to repel the Aschen Empire and nothing more. We have no interest in ruling your world. Altercation with the Consulate is unnecessary, as well as ill advised."

"We do not underestimate the Aschen. That is precisely why we will be victorious against them. They merit the full attention of our un-diluted force. As such they will be dealt with. As for any assumptions of our intent to rule this planet...ownership of systems and the planets in them is not a cost effective way to ensure profit within the VARIAtech consulate." the feminine voice droned, her shining black helmet completely inscrutable.

"Of course, you are most certainly welcome to any paranoid assumptions you may have." she added for good measure, a slightly deadpan tone in her voice. The VARIAtech soldier that had given the gun to Seven blinked his helmet once and spoke calmly. "This gun is its own ammunition. It draws kinetic salvos from its own mass and propels them in any configuration the wielder sees fit. Any mass used thusly will remerge with the weapon in short time." the masculine voice droned.

"...and there you have it." the VARIAtech soldier said, gesturing towards Agares with a black gloved hand. "But if you still wish to...shoot me...with your...gun...then you are welcome. I am unsure as to what your expected outcome is." the soldier buzzed, before returning to its 'at attention' position.

And so VARIAtech were pushed back for now, The End.

As the fleshy marines burst into the door, the three VARIAtech soldiers would all immediately seem to dissolve into a fizzling goo of sorts, sloshing and weaving about on the floor to avoid the hail of weapon fire unleashed their way. The concentrated disruptor fire would send bits of the assorted puddles flying in every direction.

With lightning fast movements, however, they all seemed to converge into one mass, before forming a large crystalline structure that scintillated with inner light. The glinting facets of the new construct seemed to fold outwards into a large array of spiny arms, a dozen or so, which began to blast thin rays of caustic energy towards the doorway and its Aschen inhabitants. A sharp whine could be heard coming from the glistening construct.

Meanwhile, outside in the street, a rogue VARIAtech prism, the size of a small house, would be caught in a disruptor blast. It shattered in to thin black shards, which hovered in the air for a moment before screaming towards the tank which had fired upon it. The shards would attempt to pierce the tanks carapace with atomic sharpness before detonating.

The blast from the grenade would blow the assembled VARIAtech soldiers apart, various clouds of glass-like shrapnel flying in three distinct directions. The assorted piles of slag would sit there for a moment and smolder before briskly remolding themselves back into humanoid shapes. The blue lights on their smooth visors all winked on in unison before each soldier's forearm elongated and sharpened into what appeared to be a wickedly sharp spine.

With unnatural agility, the VARIAtech soldiers would sprint into action, rapidly advancing on the soldiers if they were still in cover. Using agile lunges and leaps, they would attempt to get in close to the Aschen marines and skewer them on the now-energized blades.

As for the battle of armor in the street, the Prism was only able to reform itself as fast as the Aschens tried to tear it apart for now, unable to divert any of its spare mass into an attack configuration.

All at once, throughout the solar system, the VARIAtech forces vanished as quickly as they came, tens of thousands of wormholes and spatial distortions rending open the fabric of space and time. The silent, polished forms, both crystalline and in forms more exotic, slid silently back into whence they came. Again the Television in the bar panned over to the VARIAtech logo, glimmering dimly on the black background.

"VARIAtech would like to thank you for taking part in our show of force this evening. You can expect many more in the future! Remember, consider the VARIAtech consulate for all of your hyper-tech and post Singularity technology needs!"

Somewhere on the dark side of the moon...

It was amusing to Jeltz, how the whirling wormhole that had been torn open on the far side of the Moon from Terra had not been noticed by the bloodthirsty humanoids that raged and died above the serene world below. Perhaps they were simply looking elsewhere, or HAD seen it, but believed it to be no more than a meaningless anomaly. This behavior hadn't been entirely unexpected, granted, given the situation at hand, but the Overseer couldn't help but rattle off a muted mental chuckle all the same. Ah well. The time had come to reap the rewards of mass oversight.

The shining wormhole, almost five hundred meters across, was darkened for a moment as a black, glassy sphere was slowly extruded through the rift, violent energies crackling and snapping at its surface. There it lingered for a moment, before
the portal behind it snapped shut with a sudden flash of myriad colors. As fiery death reigned on the horizon of the lunar surface, the glassy sphere drifted down into the dust of the cold moon, carrying with it nearly thirty thousand independent minds, all eager to get things underway. There was no air to transmit the noise that followed as it lazily smashed into the surface and began to suck up the lifeless rock and dust into itself, growing larger and larger with each passing second. It was as if a heinous, dark blister was slowly swelling in the dark dust, assimilating the very mass of the moon into its already hefty bulk, until it was simply mountainous.

The minds inside of the crystalline mass chattered and spoke to one another, keeping constant vigil for any approaching danger. Jeltz took this opportunity to depart from the primary mass in a large, rotating black prism about the size of a small truck, hovering placidly a few dozen feet from the still-growing field nexus. With him in this separate mass were two other minds; his personal lieutenant and the chief tactical officer for the operation.

"Very well then. Let us review the goal at hand." Jeltz said, his dark purple essence flickering vibrantly within the depths of the black, glassy prism. "The primary task at hand is asset acquisition. With the current exodus from the planet, the potential to assimilate large quantities of mental essences into Nucleus has increased to the point where VARIAtech cannot ignore the opportunity. As such, we will begin deploying intercept groups to all outbound refugee ships for immediate abduction. We will require
Snares, Boarders, Walls, and Warpers in each group. Currently our field nexus has the mass to fracture into nine such sorties."

"I was under the impression I was going to have something to do here, Overseer." snapped Cally, the CTO. A clandestine operation in the middle of an active warzone was not an operation she was necessarily keen on. Granted, the few refugee groups that
WERE guarded would prove some much valued schadenfreude to her psyche, but it wasn't enough. Jeltz flared his essence slightly at her impatience. The girl still very much had a bit of mortal in her mind. He could only hope it would wash out with time.

"Yes, Cally. Do let me continue..." Jeltz said, releasing a curt mental sigh. "Doubtless after so many abductions, our presence will come to be not only noticed, but we are likely to be actively driven off. You are to ensure that the field nexus remains intact and warmed up for transport at any given time. As such, you have full freedom of fracture, but please remain on the defensive. Nealaphh, you are to be our communications relay in the field, so do us all a favor and maintain a long-distance resonance at all times. Personally, I will be isolating and making dormant all captive minds brought back to this field nexus. We will start with smaller transports, unaffiliated with any of the warring sides to test the waters. If escalation appears tenable, we will begin attempting to capture larger prey. Expect sudden changes of plans." Jeltz finished, his violet glow receding into psychic silence.

"Question...why are we doing this again?" Cally asked with slight grit in her tone. Objectifying civilians didn't sit well with her either. Nealaphh responded in his ever-calm manner, his smoky, golden voice resonating softly through the prism.

"Nucleus has grown to its maximum size for the amount of minds currently residing within it, and recruitment has not been as voluminous as we had hoped. Therefore, abduction and assimilation are the only ways we can continue to expand the planet to quota." he stated frankly. Cally responded with a flickering scoff, but said nothing more.

"Very well then. If there is nothing else to add, let us begin our efforts." Jeltz said softly, the prism floating back into the now truly massive sphere that was the field nexus. Its rounded girth now bulged easily three kilometers in radius, its inner spaces storming with a constant whirl of
flashing colors as countless minds merged and spoke to one another. A few short seconds passed, and the previously smooth surface of the field nexus rippled and buckled as various spindles, cubes, pyramids, and hexahedrons burst out of its surface, each glowing a distinct color.
Nealaphh cruised low over the lunar horizon with his wing in tow. His current shell was an extruded hexagonal pyramid, with three sharp cones jutting from the base. The flickering, shining shapes warped themselves prograde from the moon, until they settled into a wide, fast orbit around Terra at an altitude of about eighty kilometers.

"Nealaphh, this is Jolson in Snare Alpha. Telemetric readings indicate a planetary shuttle is currently accelerating to escape velocity at marker 1218.0078.521. Current transverse is within intercept range. Approach vector?"

"Confirmed. Change heading, accelerating at fifty meters per second on my mark. Standby...mark." Nealaphh buzzed. The entire formation of seven black shapes snapped their hulls to follow the new vector, accelerating briskly to catch up with the escaping shuttle. It was only visible as a shimmering wink on the horizon at first, but soon enough it resolved into a large, rounded, if not somewhat clunky ship designed primarily for interplanetary travel. Based on the ship's current heading, it was likely going to try and reach periapsis before accelerating out to rendezvous with a midway station between Saturn and Jupiter. A reasonable enough distance from the carnage, perhaps. Unfortunately, they had not counted on coming under assault from interdimensional scientists.

"Snare Alpha, Snare Beta. Initiate a block and slip. Proceed as per regulation." Nealaphh said softly, his psychic words vibrating in the minds of his wingmates. The two spindles in the group began to glow a seething bright green as space folded itself around the shuttle, causing the craft to shudder to a halt, its interior lights blinking and flickering as it was jostled. The rest of the flight was on the ensnared ship in a matter of seconds, orbiting the craft within the bent area of space as the hexahedron began projected a shimmering blue field around the entire scene, preventing interlopers from interfering with the grim work at hand.

"Boarder Alpha, proceed."

"Yes, Nealaphh. This will take but a moment."

With a loud crash, the red cube smashed into the hull of the craft, a sharp spine jutting forth from its reflective surface and piercing the hull of the shuttle. On board, the passengers whimpered and panicked, unsure of what exactly was going on. There was no flash of laser fire, and no war ships in sight...just these strange, sinister black shapes whirling past the view ports.
A woman on board screamed above the sound of twisting metal and snapping circuitry as a sharp spine breached into the hull, the air in the cabin beginning to whistle out through the miniscule gaps created into the vacuum. It was a sloppy method, yes, but it didn't take enough time to warrant more caution on behalf of the victims. With a sharp screeching sound, additional spines and spikes began to splinter from the central shaft, snapping and bending at precise angles to try and pierce the skulls of the passengers on board.
Panicked sobs and existential howls wracked the now dark interior of the craft, as the passengers were systematically slaughtered, their cowering, panicked minds being siphoned into Boarder Alpha's central mass. In the span of less than a minute, the seventy humans on board lay dead.

"This is Garzan Boarder Alpha. Capture complete."

"Roger, Boarder Alpha. Warper Alpha, proceed with return to field nexus."

"Yes, Nealaphh. Standby for spacial rend." the large sphere said in a stronge, green voice. Once again, a blinding white wormhole would tear itself open towards the nose of the now derelict interplanetary shuttle. Garzan propelled himself through quickly to the other end, a few meters above the still-expanding surface of the field nexus. The black, glassy cube extruded its spine into the central mass, and funneled the freshly extracted psyches into the field nexus before slipping back through the temporary wormhole to regroup with Nealaphh's wing.

Jeltz smiled as the first haul of silently screaming, thrashing minds spilled into his proverbial lap. He began to systematically render them inert; their psychic sparks growing dim and washed out in preparation for the brainwashing to come. Oh yes, naturally, he preferred it when people volunteered to become a part of the Consulate...but this certainly had an aesthetic to it that appealed to his more megalomaniacal tendencies. Yes indeed...

>Attention. Activity in Transition Orbit between Cephei n768 and Tau Bootis 9.

>Confirm Record of Activity. Status of event?

>Potential fatal aggression. Casualties already recorded.

>Understood. Potential for harvest?

>Unclear at this time. Optimistically? High.

>Understood...deploy a salvage party immediately. Have them refrain from interference until situation resolves further. Continue with reports.

>Confirm deployment order. Will update as necessary. Sentinel Losiri out.


...


Amidst the towering ships and dying embers of a mangled wreck, a hole would appear. To any sensors capable of detecting such a thing, it would appear as a sudden burst of X-Ray, Gamma, and Hawking Radiation that came and went in the span of two seconds. At the point of origin, there would appear a geometrically perfect rhombus of black, glassy material, rotating slowly on its axis...

>Update. Primary Target is departing event space via hyperspace. Destination unknown.

>...Understood...keep the deployment active in the area. Analyze potential for new harvest.

>Sending orders.

...

The glistening black rhombus continued to rotate slowly on its vertical axis. Everyone, every living soul, in the area, might begin to feel an itch, a tingle in the back of its mind. In reality, they were being scanned. Sized up. This wasn't the work of some advanced technology, at least not as far as what technology is understood in modern times. For all intents and purposes...it appeared to be psionic.

The dim, glimmering rhombus reacted in no way to the red ship's cataclysmic outburst. It watched with disinterested analysis as the hyper accelerated round roared off into the cosmos.

The minds on board the rhombus weren't sure why the red ship had decided to expend such an explosion of energy without even resolving a target, but it didn't impede the mission.

Just in case the vessel decided to fire on them with its next salvo, however, they began to project an area of bent hyperbolic space, so as to redirect any subsequent attack off in some harmless direction. Again.

What might not be noticed, however, was the small, crab like, black glass robot that detached from the central mass, drifting towards Godrage in a dreamy, steady manner...

>Situation resolved.

>Results?

>Nothing.

>...a pity. Withdraw.

>...Understood.

...

All at once, the rotating diamond and its detached counterpart winked out of sight in a flash of gamma radiation, leaving spiraling trails of exotic, unnamed particles in their wake...

>Reporting.

>Proceed.

>Renewed activity in Lagrange Tau Ceti IV. Two prior subjects detected.

>Status?

>Active cataclysm, perpetrator subject YTO-491.

>Interesting...Deploy scout team. Format for heavy defense.

>Understood. Sending order and coordinates.

...

Among the gently creaking wreckage, amidst the sparking wires and dying fires, a small warp in the fabric of space would rend itself open. A shimmering, spherical bubble through which a small, black glass sphere would float. It glowed with an inner light in a myriad of colors, and moved noiselessly through the darkened halls of the ship. Any being with a sentient mind within its area would feel a tingling itch in the back of their head, like a fly was buzzing on the inside of their skull...

As Kayera began to squeeze down on the sphere, she might feel her hand begin to go numb...soon, her lower arm...

Upon closer inspection, she might find that the sphere had begun to thread tiny, thinner-than-hair filaments into her flesh, ingraining itself to her body. It would be quite stuck to her, and while she could certainly try and tear it away, the filaments would still remain inside her...

...

>Report.

>Proceed.

>Initial contact achieved. New subject attacked physically. Beginning probe.

>Understood.

>Subject attempting consumption of scout team. Defend?

>...Stand by.

>...

>...Negative. Integrate.

>...Understood.

...

As Kayera began to absorb the sphere, the process suddenly seemed to hasten, as if it was all too willing to become part of her makeup. The material the sphere was made out of...was quite similar to her own flesh. Amorphous, and malleable. But whereas hers was soft and pliable, this material was sharp and crystalline. And it too could consume.

The pain, perhaps, would come slowly at first, but after a few moments, Kayera might begin to realize that she and the sphere she had consumed were now in a pitched battle of absorption and conversion. Just as quickly as she was able to attempt to integrate the material into her own body, the blackened crystal was able to compress and reformat her matter into the same material that it itself was made out of...black, sharpened outlines beginning to trace themselves all over her skin...

Unfortunately for Kayera, breaking the crystal down on a molecular level didn't do much, since the individual molecules of the object appeared to be able to move and cooperate of their own volition. As such, they began to vibrate in unison, causing a piercing, bone shattering whine that caused the entire craft to vibrate violently. The quantum vibration allowed the individual molecules to shake free of Kayera's mass, a black cloud of dust swirling and reintegrating together to reform the sphere in its pristine state.

A moment passed, before the object flared a bright white color, causing the space around it to bend outwards. The floor and ceiling of the ship groaned and creaked as they were pushed by the force, and the concussive nature of the expansion would send Kayera flying into the far wall.

When Kayera looked again, the sphere would be gone...

Oddly enough, the annoying mind-buzz had not ceased with the disappearance of the orb.