The blinding sun peeked over the horizon as the numerous workers slaved away like small ants for their colony. The glistening machines buzzed and whirled as they brought the minerals from the crust of the planet, tugging it upward.
B-64 felt a tug in his heart. The thousands of workers that were enslaved due to just being there at the wrong time. He placed a firm hand on his balcony's railing, leaning over the edge and staring down.
The rocky and barren earth was misused and breaking apart, tearing at the seams. He could tell that the planet was at its last breath even from the surface, yet no one cared. They could just move to another one in the system.
Well, B-64 said they, but it was mainly the original planets inhabitants that let it get that bad. Their main export was minerals and textiles, of which they used to buy ice and food for their workers.
B-64 sighed and let go of the railing, walking back inside his own room. It wasn't extravagant, but nor was it dull. Several crystal plants grew out of nutrient rich soil that seemed to litter the wealthy.
Small streams of molten iron and Ionto flowed freely from the clear crystal tubes. Most of the wealthy liked to see the fruits of the lower class' labor. It disgusted B-64, but he had to keep up appearances, and to not let it get to him.
The floor was soft, yet hard enough to have support him. His bed was made of the finest silk that the planet produced, though it didn't compare to his own home planets products. He brushed open the door, grabbing his Holo-pad.
The planet's inhabitants were mostly bipedal putty-like creatures. Most didn't have enough brain cells to be truly considered sentient, those were sent to pull and push the materials like common cattle. The ones that were smart were the main leaders of the planet, and were the ones that destroyed the planet with machinery and drilling.
B-64 walked across the small bridge that connected the outside hallway with the main entrance hall, cringing as he heard the guttural cries of the Cepoths. He didn't dare look down to see, however. The bridge was made out of the planets plants, crystal like flora each with the strength of earthen steel, yet highly see-through.
The main hallway was decorated lavishly, with brimming water falls and crystal sculptures. Cepoths came and went as well as any other race that so happened to come to the planet.
He waved to several Sentos on his way to the main elevator. The planet, if not for the aspect of slavery and it being a hellscape, was actually a generally nice place, with most of its inhabitants being overly friendly bunch. Though it may just be them trying to keep up impressions.
B-64 was sent by his own planets government to see if the Cepoths needed another planet to call home, and to offer suggestions as to their choice if need be. They knew he didn't like what they were doing there, but he had to obey lest he be killed.
The few things that he enjoyed on that planet was the way that he was treated: With reverence and respect because he was one of the Protogen, and due to that, he was treated as a live mine that they had to respect and keep in mind.
B-64 grasped the handle of the bridge, taking in the view as a few other species arrived to trade slaves, something that B-64 also heavily disliked, but couldn't say anything about. He pushed himself off the railing and made his way to the elevator.
He brushed his hand against the holo-pad and called down the elevator, which he joined the contents of with some grace as the occupants gave him a wide berth, knowing that any negative marks meant that they were closer to being expelled from the planet.
And that did put a smile on his visor.
As a B-series captain, he was generally considered a high-priority to the inner planets, and a vital importance to the outer ones. The only way those planets survived was with the help from the Protogens, and if they were expelled, it most likely meant the end of their lives.
The farther up he went, the less people joined his ride, and the more they joined each other. News seemed to travel fast there.
Finally, he reached the top of the Capitol building.
B-64 stepped out of the elevator and took in the room, letting his built-in computers do the diagnostics.
The room was not crystal based like many others, but it was more of a wood base. The walls were thick and dark, a sort of concrete like substance that was produced by the more experienced workers. A small desk was situated in the corner with a Cepoth working hard typing.
"Where are they?" B-64 asked, trying to keep his voice a deeper tone instead of his rather feminine natural voice. The Cepoth seemed surprised that he was there, but quickly grew worried that he might've made a mistake, which meant another negative remark.
The Cepoth produced a guttural sound, heavily merging with the sound of rubbery latex stretching as she silently typed a few more words. Finally, she produced words from what they called a mouth, "They are waiting in the room... Sir." She quickly added, her beady black eyes shifting around in their sockets.
B-64 nodded his understanding, quickly marching up to the large, wooden doors in front of him. He lightly pushed against them, opening them to reveal a large hallway with a crystal see-through floor and crystal walls.
Knowing where the heads were, he hastily made his way to the room.
B-64 quickly went over to the plan he had pre-planned for them, and went over it again. He didn't want to mess up anything, and he didn't want them to mess up either. Anything that happened to him would be met with extreme force.
But his nerves quickly shot up as soon as he entered the High-Light room.
The room itself was nothing spectacular. Just a rectangular space with a large table and a few scattered chairs and several monitors and screens. But what truly inspired anxiety was the twenty odd elders sitting on those scattered seats.
A few Synths, a large Cepoth, and other lizard-like entities sat in those chairs. They were the High-Lights, the men and women in charge of the drilling operations of the planet, and were the heartless bastards that re-legalized slavery to get free-labor so they didn't have to spend any money.
And the Protogens did nothing about it.
One of the Synths, an elder by the name Histo, spoke, "I see that our Protogen representative is here at last. We can start." One of the lizards spoke in a hiss, low enough so that B-64's advanced sensors didn't pick up the words.
B-64 tried to keep his composure, walking to his own seat at the back of the table and faced down his other representatives. The large Cepoth contorted their goo-y face into a frown, a small slimy sneeze oozed out of their vocal cords.
"I hope that your stay has been pleasing?" Histo asked, taking control of where the meeting was headed. B-64 only nodded, not wanting to accidentally speak with his current, and most likely permanent, voice.
Histo nodded, "Good, then we can begin with discussing the time we have left before we reach critical mass, hmm?" A murmur ran through the representatives as the Cepoth still looked at him with murder in his eyes. B-64 reminded himself to give the hospitality rating a mark down.
"Right. Our lead geographic-scientist has concluded that we have fifteen days before we reach what he calls the 'critical event horizon'. After this, we have less than three days to load cargo and supplies, as well as people, before the stress causes earthquakes and releases the energy stored in the core."
One of the lizard people raised their hand, a female that B-64 recognized as Gojo, "I am not willing to spend my last remaining hours on this planet in fear that we have little to no time to save anything. I expect one of the shuttles to be ready for use."
Histo nodded his head at her question, dipping his shoulder as he got more comfortable in his silk chair. B-64 was supposed to be a passive observer, interjecting when any ideas went against his pre-planned admission.
"Be that as it may, we have two weeks to evacuate and leave to another system, or another planet. What do you say, B-64?" Histo said, turning his robotic head in B-64's direction, siding his leg and holding it over his other, leaning back in his chair.
B-64 sat up straighter, lines of words appearing in his vision telling him what to say, "The planet designated for your arrival is JL-0384, a terrestrial planet with flora and fauna without sapience only three light-years from the Nerva System." He spoke with a slight crack, his natural light voice slowly peeking through his deep façade.
The Cepoth roared loudly at the mere suggestion of moving to one of the planets in the Nerva System, as it was a sort of neighborhood of inhabited planets, and the one they were given was the smallest of the bunch.
A deep grimace befell the faces of many of the High-Lights, "I agree with Marso, we ask for a-" But she was caught short with a deep rumble shaking the entirety of the building. Her face instantly turned a deep shade of pale white.
"What is that?" Another species, the Cores with nine legs and three arms, asked.
Histo turned his head to look at one of the other species in the table, a deep frown overcoming his normally jovial and jolly expression, "I swear GoJo, if you went through with Project N., I will hunt you down to any planet that you escape too."
"Project N.?" B-64 asked, tilting his head to the side as he stabilized himself as another quake hit the building, causing a number of the representatives to stand up from their chairs with a worried expression. Histo answered his question with his eyes still focused on GoJo.
"Project N. was a proposal by GoJo to just terraform the area around the core to try and buy more time. It was risky, and had a high chance of failure resulting in speeding up the destruction process. I told her not to go through with it!"
"And I did not!"
"Let's just focus on getting out of here, and then we can murder each other. Let's just use the escape pods and-"
Another tremor ran through the building, shaking the very walls and floor. They cracked the crystals, shattering a few and revealing, through the clouded crystals, the thousand meter drop.
"Let's just go!" B-64 yelled, quickly standing up and and rushing towards the exit, all the representatives following behind except for the Cepoth, who tried to run but due to its body composition, only stuck to the seat.
B-64 tried to focus on getting through the door, which was inexplicably locked. He quickly pushed a button located in the palm of his right hand , placing his fist against the lock of the door.
With a light fizz, a holographic shield shot out of his wrist, sliding through the lock mechanism and leaving the door agar. All twenty of them rushed through, B-64 in the lead.
The hard wooden floor served as better protection, though it was already showing signs of cracking. They all pushed against the elevators door, clambering to get inside it as soon as possible.
Knowing that the combined weight of them and the quakes that ran through the planets were going to be enough to crack the crystal in the elevator, B-64 quickly went into the empty one beside the others. He hastily pushed the ground floor button, and started to descend.
And his prediction came true. As soon as another tremor came, the elevator adjacent to him suddenly broke down, skimming to a halt as the chains suddenly grew thinner and thinner, before finally snapping.
B-64 watched, horrified as the elevator suddenly plummeted, the screams of the people reaching his ears. He heard the thud as it crashed against the ground.
But he had no time to dwell on it as his own elevator screeched to a halt. He felt his heart start to race as the crystals once again started to crack, and the chains pulling them to start to stretch. Thinking fast, B-64 dug his fingers into the slight gap between the crystal doors.
He relaxed his fingers as best he could, painfully slipping them into the slit. He tried his best to pry them open, painfully tearing flesh off his finger, but it was too little. The chain snapped finally, letting the nearly cracked crystal plummet.
But B-64 wasn't prepared to die just yet. He pressed another button on his left hand, sliding out a large metallic black blade. He spun it around in his fingers, stabbing it into the crystal, and slashed down, splitting it and turning some into fine powder.
He was approaching the bottom faster and faster now. He hastily slashed as fast as he could, Finally creating a gap wide enough for him to slip through. Breathing harshly despite not needing oxygen, B-64 shuffled sideways through the gap and threw himself at the wall, spinning the blade to stick into the crystal.
And just in time too, the elevator crashed not two seconds later, erupting in a fit of oil and crystal shards. B-64 breathed out in relief, letting the dagger cut it's way through the crystal until he could safely land.
And as soon as he did land, another tremor ran through the planet.
The entire platform was in disarray, many species running around in a frantic attempt to find loved ones, parents, or just panic. Red lights flashed and sirens roared as it happened, the drills that ran twenty-four seven stopping for the first time in years.
B-64 had no time. He had to make it to the escape pods.
He rushed through the crowd of panicked species, hundreds of lizards, putty creatures, and some he had never heard of all ran around him as the floor cracked and started to fall down, taking several people with them.
He reached the platform, taking one of the first escape pods out from the planet. He initiated the launch sequence, and prepared himself for ejection. He found that many didn't know that there were escape pods, but the few that did were scrambling to find their own.
He saw a family all being shoved into one, and a saw a few others start to burn as the sequence wasn't put in right, burning and dying a brutal death. And as sudden as a fifty-foot drop off a waterfall, B-64's pod was launched out from the building.
Instantly his pod started to experience pressure, pushing B-64's body backwards. He felt it in his bones, in his body. He started to scan the pod, trying to understand what it could and couldn't do, and what it could take.
B-64 felt the pod start to drop in altitude as it lost its upward momentum, and he felt a second of dread course through his body.
But the thrusters kicked in and kept the pod suspended, before finally pushing him further in the air. He breathed out a sigh of relief, placing a hand against the window of the pod. He heard the faint sound of hissing as the pods doors sealed themselves shut, breaching out of the atmosphere and into open space.
B-64 carefully grasped the small holo-pad, directing the thrusters to push him upward and towards his own planets system. He felt his heart rate begin to level out, and he started to run a diagnostic check on his body's system.
Several more pods shot out from the planet, going significantly faster than his own, but wasting more fuel as they went faster. He could tell that those people just escaped, and not a moment too soon.
As the planet behind him imploded into itself, sending out shockwaves that crashed against B-64's pod. He managed to stabilize it, but he did notice that a few other pods weren't as lucky, losing all control and spinning around, hitting the rocks and satellites that littered the planets localized space.
He grimaced, but there was nothing that he could do besides fend for himself.
B-64 grasped the communications port, letting his programming take control. Three small hooks extended from his fingertips, sliding against the terminal before connecting into the ports. He connected himself to the mainframe, and started up the communications server with his home planet, AI-C19, otherwise known as The Forge.
A white protogen, one that he knew was called Nexus, answered his call, "I might say, I expected something much more spectacular than that for a planet blowing up." He said once he heard about what had happened.
B-64 grimaced again, tapping the outside screen while saying, "The Cepoths are mostly dead, a few most likely escaped, but I cannot be sure. I am sorry if I failed."
The protogen laughed, a smile suddenly appearing on the white visor, "No, you haven't failed. There was simply nothing else that you could do. We will send a capture ship to retrieve. Until then, stay clear of any debris."
B-64 nodded, anxiously tapping his claws against the terminal of the space craft.
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And that does it for the prologue for this book! I must say, I actually enjoy this one much more than the original stories one, but that's just creator bias. Tell me whatcha think, hmm?
Oh, and the first chapter of this is going to be put up in two days, so.... Yeah, do with that what you will.
Thanks for reading!
~ Candle