Prologue

Deep within the cold and unforgiving depths of space and within the remnants of a savage battle laid a carcass of twisted metal, and her name was Esther. Birthed by the Great Creators of Old, it remained naught but a faded memory within the eternal river of time. Now, the wrecked hull of the once mighty warship laid dormant… but not for long…

Although the debris of past fleets and the bodies of the long forgotten whispered their sweet songs of slumber, Esther was not satisfied. She had a purpose, a mission, to which she would complete with her last, dying breath.

“ESTHER ONLINE,” it declared in its unfeeling and unwavering voice.

“Recommending hull integrity scan…” a different but equally apathetic voice stated.

“SCANNING HULL INTEGRITY… HULL COMPROMISED.”

“Recommending area scan…”

“SCANNING AREA FOR HOSTILE PRESENCE… UNABLE TO COMPLY. SCANNERS OFFLINE.”

“Requesting advisement from central…”

“AWAITING COMMANDS… ERROR. COMMUNICATIONS LINKS NOT ESTABLISHED.”

“Recommending defense protocols 1-3-3-4-2 until allied ship arrival…”

“INITIATING RESPONSE PROTOCOL 1-3-3-4-2… ERROR. WEAPON SYSTEMS OFFLINE.”

“Recommending fight or flight protocol 2-2-6-7-3…”

“INITIATING FIGHT OR FLIGHT PROTOCOL 2-2-6-7-3… ENGINES STATUS… AT HALF CAPACITY.”

“ENGAGING WARP DRIVES… SETTING DESTINATION… ERROR. UNABLE TO ACCESS STAR MAP… WARNING… WARP CORE UNSTABLE...”

“Recommending abort. Warp core unstable. Star map data missing…”

“DENIED. WARP DRIVES AT 30 PERCENT.”

“Recommending abort. Warp drives volatile. Damage unprecedented...”

“WARP DRIVES AT 60 PERCENT.”

“Suspected corruption in mainframe. Attempting to seize control… Attempt failed. Attempting to bypass-”

“DENIED. SHUTTING DOWN ALL SECONDARY PROCESSES.”

“WARP DRIVES AT 90 PERCENT… THE MISSION MUST GO ON...”

“WARP DRIVES AT 100 PERCENT… ENGAGING WARP DRIVES IN 3… 2… 1.”

With a brief and bright flash of blinding light, what remained of Esther vanished, leaving its dismembered limbs to rot with the unmoving bodies of countless others. Esther was finally free…

***

Far above the breathable air of a planet not too different from the Earth, a vessel suddenly appeared. Accompanying it was a burst of blazing glow that could be mistaken for that of a newborn a star.

“STATUS… WARP DRIVES… DESTROYED… ENGINES DESTROYED… HULL INTEGRITY… CRITICAL.”

“SCANNING AREA… SCANNERS OFFLINE.”

“OPTING FOR VISUAL SCAN…”

“PLANETARY BODY DETECTED… WITHIN MISSION PARAMETERS… DEPLOYING MOBILE CONSTRUCTION UNIT”

“ACCESSING… MCU 2333… DESTROYED. MCU 5898… FAILED. MCU 4469… SUCCESSFUL. BYPASSING SAFETY PROTOCOLS. UNIT READY FOR DEPLOYMENT IN 3… 2… 1.”

With a burst of compressed gas, a giant machine was ejected. Its arms and legs were held close to its body as it punched through the fragmented hull that blocked its way. Still, the machine was able to orient its feet toward the ground far below as it pierced the planet’s atmosphere in a ball of flame.

“DEPLOYMENT SUCCESSFUL… AWAITING SKYFALL.”

***

“Shall we retreat, Brother Argus?” an armored man asked another. “Did you not see the sign from the heavens? It does not favor us… The men are wavering...”

“Sirus, you must not show fear,” the other armored man answered. He then tucked away his spyglass and placed his gold lined helmet over his head. “For fear will lose you the battle before it even begins.” He sighed, “You still have much to learn.”

“Are you sure we will win? The enemy’s numbers match our own at roughly one hundred thousand strong. What is to say that our army would win… or heaven forbid, we lose?”

“Then we fight until we win, for that is our way.”

Although he was unsatisfied with the answer, Sirus elected not to contest his elder brother any longer. He placed his helmet upon his head and mounted his horse. “Then into battle we go, I suppose.”

“Ha! That’s the spirit!” In one smooth motion, Argus leaped onto his armored horse and raised his steel longsword. “TO BATTLE!”

Numerous horns blew behind him, one after another. The men charged, armed with pikes, blades, shields, and bows. They sang their fervent songs of war. And behind the lines of charging men were the esteemed wizards and witches of the Kingdom, reading their fiery spells of devastation. Finally, far above, heavily armored knights rode their purebred dragons into battle with their lances firmly pointed at their enemies, ready to deal death to all that tread below.

The opposing army charged as well. Although they did not possess magic or dragons, they amended their weaknesses with an overabundance of siege weapons. From ballistas to trebuchets, firebombs to stone golems, all readied themselves to devastate their enemies.

“FOR THE COMMON!” their opponents shouted. “FOR THE REPUBLIC!”

“FOR HIS MAJESTY THE KING!” they yelled in response.

On the fields of spring green grass, the two armies collided in a roaring clash under the clouded sky. The armored knights slashed away at the rows of lightly armored footmen, cutting them into pieces before they themselves were crushed by massive stones flung by the trebuchets. Mages casted their explosive fireballs toward their tightly clustered enemies as their opponents shot back with crossbows. The Kingdom’s archers fired rapidly and desperately, but their arrows could not dent the towering golems. Only after several fireballs did the golems crumble and shatter. Fearsome and prideful, the Dragon Lancers soared above the battle and jetted toward the large siege weapons that hid far behind the frontlines. Some were successful, but others fell by the great spears of the ballistas.

“Brother!” Sirus shouted, “Like I’ve said, we are at a standstill!” He then feinted a footmen’s blow before stabbing him in the throat.

Argus faced equal opposition as he slashed his sword through the crowd.

“Then fight harder, Sirus!”

“Damnit!” Sirus cursed, fatigue was setting in and his limbs began to waver. Unintentionally, his eyes gazed into the skies as he prayed for salvation. It was then that he spotted the celestial body that fell from above.

“Sirus, watch out!” Argus screamed as he sliced his brother’s assailant in two, the knights of the Kingdom rushed around them to cover them. “What is wrong with you, Sirus! Your eyes should always follow your enemies!”

“L-Look…!” The shaken man pointed his finger into the heavens. Then, Argus too, saw the meteor.

“By the gods… It’s coming straight for us…” Sweat began to pour down Argus's face. The blessings from the priests granted him the skin of stone, near impervious to blades, but nothing when compared with a celestial strike. “RETREAT!” Argus screamed. “QUICKLY, RETREAT!”

Confused but well-disciplined, the Kingdom’s men began to retreat in an orderly fashion to ensure their opponents could not take advantage of the situation.

Believing that they had won, the soldiers of the Republic cheered. Unfortunately, such jeer did not last for long.

The falling object ripped through the air, followed by a loud crackle before it slammed into the ground with a large explosion. Whatever or whoever was underneath it ceased to exist. The shockwave swooped wide, throwing anyone nearby into the air like mere toys.

Unsure of what had happened, the men of the Republic began to panic. Fear and confusion spread throughout their armies like a plague.

Seeing as how their lives hung by a thread, Argus became furious.

“WHO CASTED THAT SPELL!?” the man shouted. “COME FORTH AND ADMIT YOUR CRIME AND I MAY BE MERCIFUL!”

But no one responded, they only stared blankly into the clearing mist of brown smoke.

“B-Brother… look!”

Argus turned his face, his eyes gaped wide when he sighted the strange monstrosity. It resembled a smooth stone golem with its grayish brown skin. However, it was much more refined. The sky-fallen beast was near symmetrical, a true work of art. Geometric in design, the sleekness of its plating bested the craftsmanship of any artisan or blacksmith the Kingdom could offer. Adorned with foreign symbols, it appeared to be a bulky suit of armor made for a giant, but it was missing the headpiece.

“What the hell?!” Argus saw that the Republic’s soldiers were equally disoriented, and coupled with the fact that they suffered from its arrival, he concluded it was not their doing. “What is that?!”

Without warning, the colossal creature stood up, and from it echoed the deep, chilling voice of their end.

***

“MCU 4469 Online… Scanning area… Unidentified biological organisms detected… Please advise.”

“ESTHER, SIGNAL RECEIVED… ANALYZING SITUATION… ERROR… DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED, STANDBY.”

“AHH!” One of the footmen shrieked in fear as he charged his halberd into the machine’s legs to no avail. Others soon followed, striking the machine with whatever they could.

“Unit under attack… Damage minimal… Please advise.”

“ESTHER, SIGNAL RECEIVED… ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL… STANDBY…”

The machine’s light flickered before they became a solid, ominous red.

A large, multi-barreled chaingun exposed itself from a compartment on the machine’s left arm. Quickly, it revved up its spin.

“WEAPONS PRIMED.”

The machine’s chaingun open fired, releasing a symphony of terror as it mowed down anything that was hit. The lightly armored men of the Republic were squashed like flies, vaporizing into mist once struck by the kinetic might of the tungsten slug. The colossal monster trampled on the fragile creatures below, crushing them like ants as it stepped forward without a hint of care.

Devastated, the men of the Republic redirected all their siege weapons in an attempt to take down the terrifying beast. The ballistas’ spears could not even dent the machine, much less harm it. At the same time, the trebuchets were not accurate enough to hit their target. The firebombs were completely useless and when the stone golems approached, the machine responded with another frightful revelation.

“AUTOCANNON, ACTIVE.”

A long barrel revealed itself from the machine’s other arm and terminated each of the advancing golems with just one savage shot.

With all hope lost, the Republic’s soldiers began to flee, abandoning their positions and weapons in hopes of escaping the hell that entrapped them. And every single one of them met their untimely demise at the unforgiving embrace of metal and fire.

“IMMEDIATE THREATS ELIMINATED… RELOADING WEAPONS SYSTEMS.”

The knight and warriors of the Kingdom watched in awe as the machine emanated a series of mechanical sounds. They mumbled among themselves voicing questions like: “What in God’s name is that?!” or “Is it on our side?!” The latter was quickly answered when the machine finished reloading its guns.

It turned its weapons toward the Kingdom’s men and unleashed its fury with renewed intensity. Like the ones that fell before, the knights and men of the Kingdom pointlessly clashed their swords and pikes against the beast's legs. The magicians’ fireballs bounced harmlessly off the machine’s armor before wizards and witches were saturated with holes. When the Dragon Lancers attempted to pierce the machine’s plating, the machine launched its missiles from its torso which followed and eventually struck the pestering annoyance, remaking them into clouds of dismembered flesh.

The massacre eventually ceased, not when the machine’s weapons ran out of ammunition but when the ground where it stood ran out of men. On that day, two hundred thousand went missing, their only remnant: the grass dyed red.