Chapter 6: Redrix.

Now you know about the history of our race, let me tell you about the fearful day that started the biggest war in history, told by Grand Admiral Sekonnin's ancestor, Grand Admiral Hyron. Let me give you a description of what you are about to witness C.I.A.I. said. We were living peacefully, traveling from planet to planet, researching everything, and learning, until one day, we came across another spaceship that wasn't ours. This spacecraft had no writing on any part of it, just a blank craft. We tried to send a message, but nothing came back, silence in the vast vacuum of space waiting for a sign. C.I.A.I. stopped and told me to tilt my head back; I did what she said. A large arm-like figure protruded from the ceiling; it extended down to my face. A little teardrop of liquid came out of the tip and landed directly in my left eye. C.I.A.I. told me to relax. This liquid that has entered your eye will let you live through grand admiral Hyron's memory as if it were yours. 

 My world flipped around instantly, and suddenly, an alarm rang loudly. I opened my eyes and stood in the control room of a spaceship; I had no control over my body. I was just a viewer inside Hyron's mind. Out of the main window was the spacecraft in the picture that C.I.A.I had shown me moments ago. The craft had sent out invisible pod boarding ships that were picked up on the radar, but it was too late; they blasted through our craft, killing anyone who stood in their way; they were savages, and the story was cut off by a picture of this alien species. This species looked like living demons; the image showed an enormous slimy creature attached to the ceiling of the craft; they were insectoid in nature but also reptilian. The body was slimy and scaly with a long body like a snake, and it had six legs with razor-sharp claws at the tips of its human-like hands; this is what made it stick to the ceiling of the craft, the head of the creature resembled a beetle with beety little lifeless eyes and enormous pincher's.

 Grand admiral Hyron's memory continued on; they were killing people in droves. We barricaded ourselves in the central control room of the craft, but it wasn't enough; the reeboks blasted in with little effort but stopped as soon as they made it in, staring and taunting us. The main control panel started to ring. Ring..ring..! I answered, no, Grand Admiral Hyron answered, and a hologram of something new appeared, not these creatures we had just encountered; no, this was different. This creature was lifeless; this is, this is intelligent, methodical, and something else I couldn't quite make out. This being looked large and brawny, its face beaten and scared, warn even; its eyes were black like the vacuum of space had sucked me into a black hole full of nothing but rage. Its skin was pale purple, almost see-through; there was no trace of either nose or ears, but its face was still Sikarran-like.

 The voice was booming: listen to me; you will do everything I say or perish to my hounds, who is the captain of this vessel. I stood up, but before I could say anything, the voice, like a rock slide off a mountain, boomed again, take him, bring him to me now, kill the rest. In a flash, one Reebok lunged at me with piercing speed, lifting me like a rag-doll with its mouth; I was dragged out of the room, watching helplessly as my friends and crew mates were murdered before my eyes. 

 I was dragged through my ship in excruciating pain, slammed against everything these ravagers hit while running; while tossed around, I saw flashes of my ship, fire everywhere, and my crew lay strewn about bloody and beaten, screaming for help. Lifeless Bodies also lay around every turn, every corridor, until I saw an opening to the other craft; as we entered this craft, I noticed a hint of a smell, something familiar, but I couldn't quite make it out. The craft had wide open hallways with no end in sight, and this also seemed familiar, like I had been on this craft before; the creature sprinted and crawled into a vast corridor with a singular sikarranoid creature sitting on a throne made from beak-like mouths of the Reenoks.

 I knew immediately where I was when I entered this room; this was one of my fleet ships I had lost communication with a month ago; the lingering smell of what was once one of my ships still hung in the air, the stripped outside of the ship and the hallways made it all come together. But who is this sitting at the throne of beaks, I wondered? The figure stood slowly and menacingly; his body shadowed; it spoke. Listen to me very carefully; I underestimated the sheer volume of this voice over the hologram; in person, face to face, it shook the room and made my spine feel like jelly, the voice bellowed on. My name is Redrix; I stand before you as a being wanting to work together or be friends if you make the right decision. Redrix spoke with a two to three-second pause between each word and didn't break eye contact; join my crew and become a part of my undying fleet; he took a step forward as if in slow motion, another step and another until his body broke free from the shadows. I will make you great grand admiral Hyron; I want to make everyone great, but I only need one thing from you, so please, as I said before, listen very carefully because if you don't, It took about a full minute for him to say this sentence. He walked as close as he could, the floor singing with the ominous rumble after each step closer.

 Redrix was standing maybe four feet away now; I could make out his entire physique. His body was tentacle-like; his neck had long, thick strands of tentacles coming down, forming his body, and his arms and legs wrapped around each other, making limbs and being used like individual muscles. These tentacles formed into hands and fingers at the ends; like I noticed before, his body was pale purple and see-through, and I could see the blood pump from his heart through his makeshift limbs. I noticed now, feet away, that he had ears and a nose, but they were slits on his neck of tentacles. What I want from you is your planet's life source and its essence; I want the power of your sun; I travel from galaxy to galaxy, taking the power of the sun for my unique project; in return for your galaxy's sun, all you need to do is become my slaves and build this unique project for me. I need the raw power from your sun, so you don't have a choice: join me or be ripped apart by my hounds limb from limb, and don't worry, I'll make sure you're last. 

 Redrix went on after threatening my entire civilization. If you decide to embark on this journey with me, I'll spare the fragile lives of your people, he said. I'll ensure you are fed, clothed, housed even; sounds like a good deal, said Redrix. I stared at him for a couple seconds, thinking to myself. If I say yes, I let my people down; our Sikarran blood is made of fighters. Redrix cut my thoughts off with his bellowing voice, but remember, as I said before, if you don't join, limb from lim, I interrupted with a harsh and low, no. Redrix slightly looked up and puckered his lips, thinking to himself. Now, I don't very much appreciate being interrupted like that, so I'd suggest you hold your tongue until I'm finished, or I can have Carla come over there and rip it out of your mouth. I looked to my left to see the largest Reebok I had ever seen; she stood about 15 feet long and 8 feet tall, tearing into my soul with her beady black eyes. No, I said even louder this time, we will not submit to you; we are strong, and we will never let you defeat us or take the power of our universe; before I could finish, he lunged at me with incredible speed, in the flash of an eye he had grabbed me by my head and lifted me up at least ten feet off the ground, insubordinate behavior like that will not be tolerated. Redrix took a slow step forward, lifted me a little higher, and with, I'm assuming, a quarter of his strength, slammed me into the ground so hard blood started coming out of my mouth immediately; coughing and grasping for a breath, he began to walk back to his throne, Redrix sat with a loud thump, he said, do you understand what I want from you, Mr. admiral. 

 Out of nowhere, the side of the shuttle blasted open, sucking all the oxygen out in an instant, and the freezing ice of space hit me; I couldn't breathe, couldn't, couldn't move. Is this it? I thought, is this how I die, at the hands of this monster and my people? I had no idea what was coming for them; my eyes grew heavier until they shut, and I could feel my life slipping away; all of a sudden, I felt something come over my face. I could breathe again; my eyes slowly opened as I saw Redrix trying desperately to move; there was no gravity, and now the hole that had blasted open was by my second-hand man. Redrix was slowly catching up to us, grabbing and clawing at us; he knew if he lost us, we could warn the rest of the Sikarrans; my second-hand man had a jet-pack space suit, so he could move very quickly; we were maybe five feet away from the gaping hole out into space, three feet, 2 feet. We grabbed the edge and pulled ourselves through. Redrix was clawing at the ground to move towards us with no luck; he looked at Carla, screaming orders for her to "go get them." his lips read, as there is no sound in space. 

 I saw him wave and point at us, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Carla lunging toward us with lightning speed, her claws cutting into the spaceship floor like butter. I saw our escape pod in the distance; we had just reached the void of space, slowly moving toward the escape shuttle. Right behind us, Carla had launched herself from the ship into space. She got closer and closer. Carla was just a couple feet away when wamm the door to the escape shuttle shut in front of me; my second-hand man screamed, C.I.A.I.! Launch the thruster and send it to warp to Hexon Dei now. Through the little window in the back of the escape shuttle, I saw Carla clawing profusely with no luck, just the momentum she gave herself trying to reach us but to no avail; Redrix was staring at me with his red eyes of a thousand fires like he had set my soul on fire, he looked considerably upset as we vanished.