Dark 30: Vengeance is Mine

1

“Emissary, your prisoners are here.” I looked up from my clasped hands on my lap towards the sight of the ragged looking human prisoners. From my seated position, I looked towards the figure who spoke. It does not matter if I smiled or not at the sight of these brethren of mine in flesh and blood for my full-face cover was of the metallic alloy that covered my face with the breathing apparatus providing me with my substance of life.

“Spare us, Jimmy. We are not your enemy”

Enemy indeed. I have with the assistance of my allies annihilated the living beings of the Earth then. I am indeed an enemy of theirs; duly named by them as Vengeance. I looked from behind my metallic face cover towards the one who had pleaded for my clemency.

Javier Fernandez, warrior and chief of the resistance and before that title was my neighbouring unit dweller with three kids that attended the same school as mine. The neighbour of mine was the model feature for the fatherhood award compared to myself who was the wimp with a family.

“Jimmy, I know you are…” I had heard my name called twice then and it irks me that I am still remembered by that. I am the Lord; the only Lord of the World. I have dealt with the death of billions and the destruction of trillions. I who was once the named one as Jimmy had taken the vow of vengeance and with that vow, I had assimilated myself to the current form I have; full-body automation with only part of my brains connected to the circuitry that was my headpiece. My brain was the last remaining piece of my physical body then made up of the metallic components. It was not in its full complement for only parts of it was recovered and restored.

“Jimmy, I beg of…” I felt a surge in my circuitry on the mentioned of my name. I was the named person as mentioned before but the enemies have destroyed what was not with me anymore. I looked towards the figure I recognized as Javier with my visual contraption mounted to my headpiece. I adjusted my focus for I could hardly recognize the facial expression, but I have my trust in my system processor which was designed to do the mundane task of identification and verification.

Javier looked distressed in his ragged body amour and uniform. His left arm was missing; I recalled then it was replaced with a metallic one to perform the menial tasks it was designed for. He was covered in blood and dirt from the debris where the automation had dragged his form out from.

“Jimmy, I know …” Funny, the figure still pleaded with me without even identifying me from the headpiece. I was after all an automation at over seven feet in height and held a powerful mechanical structure that could crush his skull with small effort. I retained my form of the humanoid with the two upper and lower limbs with the torso design, apart from my headpiece which resembled a half sphere with the dark shade. I had my design apart from the other automation which was in more grotesque forms; Functionality was the key factor in the design and it worked. My automation has done what the humanoids could not complete; the annihilation of living beings.

“Emissary, we await your command.” I heard the mechanical voice of the automation next to me. It stood at over twelve feet, with a frame that was more of a four-limbed legged form with the mounted cannons on the top and side of the frame. It measured at over twenty feet with a dimension of ten feet. The huge frame weighed over a ton with the heavy weaponry on the form. It held no headpiece but the front section of the frame was equipped with sensors.

“The Emissary will not be rushed.” Another voice sounded on my other side. A voice that resembled humanoid but not the figure which appeared there. It was a translucent sphere form that floated above the surface.

“I am not talking to you, Le-Care.” The four-legged automation replied with a growl in its vocal tone. “I am talking …”

It was then I raised my hands and then unclasped it to swing it out. It was my display of silence to my allies who had fought the war with me. They knew why we are there.

“Yes, the trial is more important.” Le-Care voiced out. The sound from it was mimicked by the translator in the sphere. “We stand here today to judge the last of the human survivals of their fate.”

“Our fate? You are all monsters. You came to our world…. Our planet here and destroyed with your superior weapons.” The accused Javier Fernandez shouted out. “What is your …. Right to place judgement on us. We demand to be avenged.”

2.

Avenged was the word that triggered my synapses in the circuits attached to the last remnants of my brain. My metallic fingers clasped into the form of a fist ready to strike at the figure who was once my friend. If it was vengeance then its mine to seek.

“Stay calm, Emissary.” Le-Care sensed my emotion and reached out to me telepathically. I unleashed my control on the fist but my seated upright position remained while my visual contraption to look at the figure there.

“General Javier Fernandez, formerly of the United Forces of Earth, you stand trial with your retinue of Council Members for the murder of the planet you named Earth. It’s made known to us, the Guardians of the Milk Way namely us, the Spherion’s and The Automations. We are the guardians of the Galaxy in this sector. We were brought to your planet by a humanoid of your own named Commander Jimmy 5123 Alpha Male on a mission of mercy to save the planet.” Le-Care voiced out.

“I stand to …. comply with no alien race or to any self-declared Guardians, let alone a deserter and traitor to Earth.” General Fernandez defied the tribunal judging them. “I demand the release of my people and hand over the one named Jimmy 5123 Alpha Male. He is not deserving of the rank given to him by us, the Governing Council.”

“Unfortunately, your position is not recognised by us. We are Guardians of the …”

“Enough of your ranks. State your demands of my people.” General Fernandez cut in. “Waste not our time. You have annihilated all that is living here. And it makes no difference to us. We have no means to challenge you at all.”

I would have lied if I say I was not tormented by those words said by the other. It was partially my words spoken in defence of my action then. I recalled the day when I was brought to Council, secured with restraints and stripped of my rank as the Commander of the Colony 23; the moon of Earth. I was dragged by the guards to the Council Hall and presented to the line-up of thirteen Council Members chaired by one General Javier Fernandez.

The hall was the same one where I am seated to listen to the trial of the General. It was a semi-circular in design and three rows for the Council Members. It held twelve seats on each row; a total of thirty-six members during it prime period where the Council Head held an extra vote in the case of a tie to the votes. That numbers have dwindled over the period to the privilege thirteen and included one leader who was demented and dictatorial in power.

“Commander Jimmy 5123 Alpha Male, you are to stand trial for refusing my command to …” I recalled cutting in with my own protest.

“I am not going to kill my own colony by murdering the Moon where we resided for the last five years.” I was the Commander of the Colony there designated Colony 23. “Just as we had murdered our planet here.”

“Commander, I will caution you to refrain from interrupting me in my words.” The General looked at me. The other was dressed in the red cloak over the white suit with the tight collar and the magnificent headpiece that was a golden crown. He held in his hand the golden spectre like a magical wand. He swung that spectre to right and the display of my family members was seen there; restraint unlike myself but their restraints were a metal suit over their body except for the head. There was my wife, my two children; both boys in their teens, and my ageing mother. Without a word, the suit on my mother tightened and her body was compressed into a glob of flesh while the head fell off removed from the neck. My scream was without any sound but my soul screamed out louder than my voice.

“Now, Commander. We have an understanding now.” General Fernandez smiled. It was not a smile of a sane man but more of one with madness in his expression. “But I am a man of little faith.”

One of my sons suffered the same fate as your mother.

It was then I screamed. It was loud for I was knocked on the head by the guard. I went down on my knees.

“Now, that build up my faith to a suitable level.” General Fernandez raised the spectre to his back and scratched it. “Now, Commander. Tell me what did you mean when you said we murder Earth.”

“Do you realize that the planet is dying …. No. its near death now. You have plunged in the death plunger into the core of the planet. Are you mad?”

“That…. My God, you meant that last attempt to tap the core for its minerals. If there were any. I did not do anything wrong that my ancestors have not done any indifference to mine. We have been killing the Earth ever since we discover the Industrial

Revolution…… how long was that? A few hundred years with the missing decades here and there, when we waged war and threw more damages in the form of bombing the crust with our weapons.”

“Yes, we were murdering her for aeons,” I recalled my pathetic words to the General.

“Murder, desecrated, raped. Heck! What about this? This sceptre up your bum.” The General laughed. “It’s insane but we have been insane for long. Are you insane to stop me now?”

3.

“Commander, there is another directive from the High Council. We are to activate the drills to extract the minerals from beneath the surface.” I heard the request from my aide while my focus was on the vidscreen above my head. The screen covered a half the Command Centre with its curved surface and it was displaying twelve mini vid screening of the planet Earth. Two of the screens were displaying the geographical layout, while another three was on the subterranean areas, and the others were on the weather to the drying ocean beds. I have been studying the planet from afar on the moon with new readings that were not available from my previous centre at Earth. It would have been available but the authorisation was limited then. When I reached the Moon to establish Colony 23 on a small section of the Moon, it was formed to create the Planetary Studies Centre on Moon, but I diverted half its resources towards Earth.

It was my fourth year there overseeing the five other colonies there on the Moon, when I got the directive to mine for minerals at its core I protested on the directive and delayed the works till it became imperative that I do the task or be replaced.

“Commander, High Council demands to know our progress.” I heard my aide then. I nodded. My work was going as plan but not to the design of the High Council.

“They want you to return to Earth.” I was sent back to Earth. And hence the torture of my family.

“Insanity ruled in our DNA makeup,” I replied to the General.

“I am aware of that. After all, I have been ranked in the Hall of Madness with some notable leaders like the Khan, Hannibal and even Rasputin. Those are names which you may not be familiar with for they are from the ancient era. You may have read of Trom of the States or Patin of Balkans. Heroes to some, dictators to others, and murderer to the historian.”

“Those were war faring leaders. You are the plunder of the planet. Have we not placed the planet at peril with the extraction of its minerals? We have dried up half the sea beds, where once depths of water rivalled the towers which we lived in. Have we not isolated a sixth of our surface with high levels of radiation? Have we not drained the planet of its fossil converted energy into empty subterranean caverns?” I argued back with desperation voice to protect my intention.

“Another …. What are you called? Environment Warrior.” General Javier sneered at me. “The descendant of the long list of warriors; were you not called since the age of Nuclear Age.”

“Yes, we are warriors. We have fought against leaders like yourself who had destroyed the planet here and also the adjacent ones. Mars and Venus reached by us were also subjected to the same torture.” I felt dejected by my weakness to act on it. We have progressed in our life with the ability to travel into other planets but we lack the means to do it rapidly. The knowledge of light travels evaded us, while a trip to Mars took months. Nevertheless, we created the passage towards there, and within years we desecrated the planet for our mineral needs. It was always minerals which we needed to live on. Our cities overcrowded where they are still inhabited, and the others destroyed by the war we waged on each other.

“Warrior of the planet, before you could judge me tell me what wrong had I done that was not already done by others before me?” General Fernandez laid his defence towards me. “For hundreds of years, we have plundered the planet for minerals. We killed the others for the same. As a matter of fact, in my reign, I terminated half the population of the planet here. It was in my reign that I pledged the space travel to the other planets so that we can populate there. In order for that, we need to mine the planet for the minerals we need.”

The General picked his words well. He knew that he was only doing what was needed to survive. I struggled with restraints. I knew that I was outclassed by the other and only death awaits me.

“Your silence is the acknowledgement that I am not wrong. I needed to …. No, the people of the planet needed minerals to survive. I was just their pawn in the task. And you are mine to do your part.” General Fernandez looked at me. “You failed me. And with that, I failed the people.”

Just as soon as his words ended, my other son died for my mistake. The elder and beloved child of mine imploded inside the metal restraint. I screamed out my anger but that was nothing to compare to the agony my wife felt. She had lapsed into unconsciousness then.

“You bastard, Javier.” It was my first attempt to address the General as a personal entity known to me. He ended my trial with the banishment of my wife and myself to the dark space. A floating coffin for two souls with limited life support was our prison It was the namesake torture of the General, and we were flung into space. My wife did not wake up from her state of the unconscious and eventually died beside me.

“Vengeance will be mine,” I swore then, and soon was to succumb to it but I did not. I was rescued by the Guardians.

4.

“Insanity is an inherent trait of your race genetics.” Le Care voiced out. “However, we are concerned about the damages are done in the process.”

“So, the victor decided to justify the victory.” General Fernandez retorted. “Do tell me, how did you find this weasel and had him convince that we are a threat to the Universe?”

I tensed up inside me with the connections that were linked to my core processor buzzing with signals. The General is probing on my role here. I was the one who brought the Guardians to serve justice for me. When the Guardians found me, I was at the final seconds to death, with my body functions ceasing to work except for a portion of my brain. I was saved then when the brain was secured to the metallic body I was lived within. It was from my brain that the Guardians were able to create the images that spoke of the damages to the planet.

It was from there, I learned of the Guardians role in the Milky Way Universe; they preserve the planets from destruction. Ironically, they were lacking in the duty but the Milky Way is huge. A noble ambition of them and it was from there that I pressed on the damages that were inflicted on Earth. They sent the scouts and soon I was given a hearing to explain my request.

All it took was a week to reduce Earth’s defences and then the defending forces before they annihilated the population except for the few that stood before me. It was my request then.

“It's not relevant to the matter on hand, General. We are to save the planet. And we have done that.” Le Care was blunt to the objective of their works. It was understood that the inhabitants of the planet could not be saved for they were the ones doing the destruction then.

“Then why kept us alive?” General Fernandez called out. “Are we to be your last to see victims?”

“No, General. It’s the request of Commander Jimmy 5123 Alpha Male. He wants to have his vengeance on all of you.” Le Care replied. “We are not that irredeemable when it comes to some …. requests. We do owe the Commander the deed of his action.”

It was then I stood up. I removed my facepiece to reveal the surviving brain that was implanted on the metallic body. I synthesize the voice unit and spoke once more on the surface of the planet I was born in.

“General Javier Fernandez”, my voice was delivered in a mechanical format but it was audible. “I am not surprised that you knew it was me. The sensors you have deployed was created by me to recognize brain waves. I am back as you can see and hear me now.”

“The humanoid traitor finally revealed.” General Fernandez replied. “Are you to see my death now?”

“I will be. You murdered my family before me. I will have my vengeance on you for that.”

“Vengeance? I doubt so. You are nothing but a section of the brain. How could you really hurt me? Crushed me at my flesh and bones?” General Javier laughed. “It will not bring back your family. Mine dead from the carnage your allies inflicted on the world.”

“No, I will not do that. I will take my vengeance on your mind as you did with mine. I will destroy you from within.” I motioned with my mind towards his. I have perfected the brain waves signal to work on the General’s and within it, I implored his mind with images that even in his darkest fear will never tread on. The General screamed clutching his good hand over his head. He collapsed onto his knees and then death took over his body but his soul was tormented by this mind.

“You are a vengeful person, Commander Jimmy 5123 Alpha Male.” Le Care voiced to the last inhabitant of the planet. “I am afraid that as the role of the Guardian, we have to remove you too.”

“I am aware of that. I will die in my world.” At that moment, above the atmosphere towards the Moon that orbits around the planet, a huge explosion could be heard there. The core of the Moon exploded and it was pushing the Moon on a collision course towards the planet. And the impact that will destroy the planet.

“What have you done?” Le Care cried out towards me.

“I am taking the planet and the moon with me. It dies with me. That is my final vengeance for it will never be ravaged by new inhabitants.”

“Ashes to ashes.”