Future Possibilities of Old Friends, part 1 – Chapter 5

Inside the Imperial Institute of Korbanis, many renown scientists would be allocated rooms for their own research. Anyone whom proven their thesis and could greatly benefit the Avalon Empire could be rewarded with a steady stream of income to finance their research.

In one such room, a man in a dark robe was standing up, hands on the research desk, looking over notes. His robe looks quite prestigious with light and dark purple stripes and designs on it. A hood was over his head and under this hood you could only see a full faced golden mask. The mask seemed to resemble a human face, but the eyes were hollowed out and there was no mouth orifice. The mask itself seemed to be connected to a full black bodysuit which he wore under his robes. He even had gloves and light armor wrist bands and shin guards.

For a scientist to be dressed like that was quite strange.

'The strands are so similar, but he's not one of them.' Thought the man. 'The genetics are present, but the alterations make him a complete other being, even species. I need more samples, I have way too few! Why can't he just die already! Let me dissect you!'

The robed man started to rave inside his mind, sparks could be seen igniting all around his body and the air became more and more eerie. A maddening rage was going to be unleashed!... And then he stopped. 'Oh well! Patience is key, genetics is something that needs that patience!' concluded the man. 'I'm such a great man! So nice! So, patient!'

He turned around and looked to an operating table not far where a man was strap in and gagged with tears accumulating in his eyes.

"Now… let's see if I can extract some memories. Can't delay my work now can I." said the man with low monotonous voice. "So, if I remember correctly from the last session, you were thinking about Kaloparion trade routes and the position of those troops… let's confirm this before continuing the search."

The masked man approached his hands to the tied-up man's temples. The muffled screaming started, and a moment later purple lightening started to enter the poor strapped soul. The streaks of lightning could be seen doing a circular motion from the masked man to his victim. The biggest difference was that the lightening would invade the entire body of the strapped man, making him spasm non-stop, but the most lite up part where the lightening steaks moving around the victim's head. For the masked man, the lightening would be seen going up his arms to his head and go back to his victim.

After fifteen minutes, the masked man stopped, not because he was tired or finished, but because his 'guest' died.

'Well, I got what the high council wanted. Time to make the report.' He thought.

He went to his work desk and started writing his report on his computer… The body of his victim was charred black on multiple spots and the smell of roasted meat was in the air, but the man did not mind it. That's when a strong knock came to his door.

"Come in."

A man with red skin, brushed back black hair and black as night eyes strode in without hesitation. He was a Sygon and he was wearing a grayish and black full body armor with dark red stripes. From his massive square shoulder guards hanged a black cap which had a weird mystical pattern with an eye in the middle of it. The insignia of the Emperors High Guardian's.

"Minister of History and Archeology, Vickrein Noxus. You have been summoned to take part in a special intergalactic operation you must present- "

"Not interested." Said blatantly Vickrein. Not even lifting his head once. He seemed to have finished his report and send it to the High Council. "If you are finished, I will be returning to my research, I bid you farewell." He got up and walked to his research desk activating a holoprojector displaying a humanoid body with multiple notes and signs that appeared everywhere next to the projected body. While scribbling on his notes he would periodically check his microscope.

If you are wondering why the Minister of History and Archeology was a researcher of genetics specialized in humanoid biology, it's quite simple. In the empire, you can gain whatever you wish for as long as you have the strength and capabilities to gain it. For unknown reasons, a decade or so back, Vickrein needed access to multiple historical documents and access to the archeological dig sites across the galaxy for his research. Normally, gaining access would only take a little less than a month through due process, but the nature of his studies was of the restricted sort.

Since he was refused, he went to the next step: gain the level of status needed for access. He discovered that to have all the rights and liberties he needed, he had to have the position of Minister of Culture and Tradition. He's conclusion on the matter told him that to have that position he would need to wait the end of the career or death of the current minister… So, he killed him.

It wasn't a simple process. He diligently investigated the late minister, brought out false or manipulated evidence against him, killed his close friends and family until he was driven mad enough to make him attack himself publicly where he executed him in the most intense battle… in self-defense. All of this while keeping his involvement a secret and covering the evidence of this.

Then how did the minister know it was him. Quite simple actually: he told him. He told him every detail, every act he done, the torture he executed on his entourage, the sabotage of the career of the minister and even why he did it. Which in turn made the minister go crazy and attack him.

However, Vickrein Noxus, with all his plans and preparation did not count on one little thing: The High Council's power. When he was summoned to them as, of course, the only candidate to become the Minister of Culture and Tradition, they showed him a file with all his deeds.

Surprisingly though, they did not sanction him or punish him, they praised him, especially High Councilor Ziban. However, the man wasn't considered ministerial material. He was uninterested in the affairs of state. So, since they knew of his reasons and knew what kind of individual he was, they decided to create a new ministerial position that would give him the access he needed with limited need to operate as a minister.

The research he was conducting was to understand a specific kind of humanoid, which in turn could immensely help the development of a biomentalist's body to operate and control their powers, even amplifying them. He then was also made High Councilor Ziban's personal apprentice which guaranteed a greater amount of research funds. Such prestigious awards and position would be great for any normal person, but for Vickrein it was an eyesore.

He was now obligated to give monthly reports on his research and help his 'master' with errands. These errands would send him on the front lines of the war or secluded sectors of space to investigate disturbances. His master called it 'field training', but it was mostly a nuisance for him.

However, fifteen years ago, on the front-line war on the planet Balkarian, he found a truly exceptional specimen that turned his views on organic life upside down. He fought it, but it had escaped. Since then, he tried to find it again… and dissect it for research. But since his search was fruitless, he delved in his research with the little samples he was able to collect which was mainly blood. With it, he discovered that the specimen was related to the mysterious and rare Zirkan race. Knowing this, he thought he could dissect his master, but discovered that it would go counter to his plans if the Empire would lose one of its main pillars. He was then in an impasse.

Without further a due, he turned his head to his research trying his best working with the little blood he had in front of him.

The High Guardian stood still and continued, "This is an order of the High Council and High Councilor Ziban is the one sending out this message and is in charge of this operation."

The eerie air raised again in the room and the guard was caught off guard, startled by the pressure. However, what creeped him out further was the abrupt change where the eerie feeling just disappeared moments after, like if the feeling he had was just an illusion.

"I just finished my last errand for him and now… fine I'll go." Said Vickrein disdainfully.

He took a step towards and disappeared out of thin air. The guard was startled again and then heard the robed man whisper to him next his ear "Are we going or not?"

The guardian turned abruptly, unsheathing his kinesis sword in hand, heavily breathing in fear. Vickrein was behind the man, five feet away.

"Stop playing around and bring me to this summon of yours…"

Everyone knew of the volatile nature of the minister and he was warned to not anger the man, but the guard didn't feel that a minister 'in name only' was worth that much consideration. He was now thinking that he should start being a lot more careful around this man now. Not many could compare with a High Guardian, the fact he maneuvered around him like that was a great feat. With fear and new-found respect for the man, he directed the man to the fated meeting.

'I can't wait to see this idiot twisted face when I'll cut off his head.' Thought Vickrein.

15 years ago, planet Balkarian, on the outskirts of the capital city, Meerak.

Two military man were sitting at a table in a war room waiting in the Imperial main base.

"How long must we wait for this envoy? We can deal with this ourselves!" said a major.

"We DID try to deal with it ourselves, but look where it brought us? Two battalions killed and destroyed, a regiment of biomentalist completely wiped out and we spend more then one third of our artillery ammunition on the thing with nothing to show for it! The next thing would be orbital bombardment, but the natural ressourced of this god forsaken planet are to precious to destroy." Declare the colonel.

"But one man? Is one man enough to take care of this?" voiced the major.

"We shall see." Said a voice.

Both men were startled by the arrival of a masked man who seemed to be walking through the wall. "So, I heard you had some difficulties with some resistance fighters of some sort?"

The monotonous and indifferent tone of this masked man infuriated the major, but the colonel took over before he could say a word. "Are you Vickrein Noxus? Sorry to ask this, but we need confirmation."

"Yes, of course, here is the letter of confirmation from my 'master'. I'm here to investigate and clean up any… problems that have occurred here." Vickrein seemed devoid of interest on the matter.

"Thank you for helping with this." After giving the papers back to the masked man after looking over it briefly, he went directly to the point. "Three days ago, like you know, the Democratic Republic Alliance has withdrawn from the planet after heavy losses after our successful offensive. During their retreat, a regiment stayed behind to cover their retreat. They were able to successfully retreat, but at the cost of the whole regiment… Except for one soldier."

"Well two if you count the droid." added the major.

"A droid and a soldier?" Vickrein slightly interested "A biomentalist?"

"No, well we don't know." Uncertainty was written everywhere on the colonel. "The soldier doesn't emit any signature that would identify him as a biomentalist. The droid accompanying him seems to have multiple assassination protocols and has been illusive since the start of the conflict."

"I am surprised such a relic has been such a problem for you all. It is quite shameful." Calmly and monotonously said Vickrein. "I would have maybe understood if it were an android because of their versatility, but this is a big clanking machine we are talking about."

"You won't say the same thing after you see the battle footage." A woman seemed to appear from thin air from the corner of the room.

"I was wondering how much longer I had to wait for you too come out. Any longer and I would have killed you." Casually threatened Vickrein.

"Sorry for that, sir. Old habits. I am agent Villeta of the Imperial Intelligence Agency. I have been sent by High Councilor Rayvin to observe and help in anyway possible." She showed a brief smile while standing straight with her hands in behind her back.

She was a Cirisi. This species of humanoid was seen to be very exotic and beautiful for a lot of other species. Dark blue skin with even darker blue hair and they were renowned for their red compound eyes shaped has normal human eyes; they simply lack an iris like most humanoid species. Heighten reflexes and heighten dynamic vision, this species of humanoid was very agile, but they were considered slightly weaker physically to humans. Because of these characteristic and the fact that they closely looked like humans, apart for the mention parts before, granted them tolerance from the empire and its citizens.

Socially accepted, many have joined the Imperial Intelligence division because of these physical traits. They were known to have very firm and direct way of speaking which reflected their culture that focus on discipline and serving their nation, but the one in front of him did not seem to follow the Cirisi way.

She spoke with a more casual tone and seemed to even be more of a flirtatious individual giving her more personality then others of her species. Acting like this would only be with close family or close friends in private and was considered vulgar, close to taboo, when done openly and even more with a stranger.

Vickrein liked it. To be clearer, he didn't 'like' the woman in front of him in a physical sense, but as a collector. Something out of norm, something that was rare and not seen elsewhere was meant to be found and analyzed.

"Fine… Now, can we look at the footage? I don't have all day."

"You right." Said the colonel. "Major, activate the file."

The major, injected a miniature portable device inside a terminal which was connected to a projector and then activated footage through a computer.

"This was recorded from the helmet cam of a soldier two days ago, the images are a bit jumpy, but we can see clearly what happens…"

2 days ago, Meerak, downtown district

Inside a trench that faced a gigantic crater, a squad of soldiers were 'readying' themselves to proceed with their mission.

"Holy sh*t! Holy Sh*t! Holy sh*t! I can't deal with this anymore!" said private Hollier. The footage was coming from the point of view of this soldier.

"Get a grip private! We need to have a visual on the target for the artillery strike!" said his sergeant.

"Respectively, sarge, that monster is killing anything that gets close or shoots at him and we have sent already three artillery strikes on him which each team that gave that 'visual' was then VISUALLY ripped apart." Said another soldier.

"This is the second day already, it must be exhausted by now so…"

By the end of the sergeant's words, dying screams and explosions were heard approaching their position. The men peeked over the trenches to look and saw a ravenous looking man shredding a tank with his own hands, making it explode while soldiers were running away. The man then lifted what remained of the burning tank and threw it on the fleeing soldier crushing them and splattering their blood everywhere. The scene was horrifying and sense defying: the tank should we weighing over a couple of tons! He lifted what a normal biomentalist would have difficulty lifting by themselves.

His massacre continued, running after anyone fleeing in front of him. His armor was half ripped apart and his helmet had one of his eyes slightly broken showing a mad red eye scarring the soldiers even more.

"Sarge, this is crazy! We need to leave! He is coming this way too!" said Hollier

"This is perfect, with this we can call the strike easily." Said the sergeant. "He's at approximately seven hundred meters away, perfect for us."

The sergeant aimed his rifle and activated a targeting beam, pointing at this man. Once he did though the man looked directly at them and started running towards them. The soldiers panicked since every step seemed to propel the monster by fifty meters.

"Sh*t! F@#k this!" said Hollier and two more privates followed him.

The private heard his leader swear at him but moments later a huge impact noise was emitted from where he was. His colleagues took the lead running through the trench. Running non-stop without looking back until they were close to an exit. When they barely made it out to two shots were fired killing his teammates instantly.

Hollier stopped in his tracks and froze. Not even before he could react to his dead teammates a stabbing noise was hear and a sharp pain was emitting from his stomach. He looked down and saw a big knife handle sticking out of his belly with a black rusty metal hand grasping it. He followed it up until he saw a very tall droid standing on his right. It had a humanoid shape with square edges, it looked sinister with his uniformed black and rusty look. Its two eyes were lite up in a dark yellow color, making it even more sinister.

A heavy caliber laser-pistol in its right hand held up and a sniper rifle hanging on his back, it looked straight ahead, still holding the knife in private Hollier's stomach.

"Declaration: One must stay for the entirety of the show! Especially when it's free! Query: What part of the show was to your disliking? I will ensure to notice my Master of any complaints you have on this show!"

The pain was searing his stomach. "Wha… Why? Eurgh!"

The knife was forcibly and quickly extracted from him, making him fall on his knees. Guts spelling out from his stomach, the droid then moved in front and lowered his pistol to aim at the soldier's head.

"Rhetorical question: Should I even bother with such riff-raff that show such disrespect to such artistry of my Master. Announcement: Congratulations dear biological bag of excrement! You have been awarded with death!... Enjoy the end of your suffering…"

A loud shot was the last thing Hollier heard and felt.

Back in the war room, 2 days after the footage

"What an interesting droid… It's a shame that we will most likely need to destroy it. I rather not destroy collectibles, but oh well." Said Vickrein seemingly having a sad ton behind his mask.

"You know what that robot was? We couldn't find it in the registers of droid manufacturers of the empire. Since the decline of droids for androids, very few models exist, and we can't find it." Said the colonel

"That is normal colonel. This is a very rare and banned model of the AD series. It was a sophistically created assassin droid that were built five to six hundred years ago. They were banned because of their highly advance assassination protocols that could be updated by itself. Most droids of that series would grow distorted personalities that would even persist after memory wipes." Explained Vickrein

"Most were design with the functionality of being able to have independency to a certain extent." Continued Villeta. "Like you might have guessed, one wrong worded command or an order that was to broad could spell disaster. Whole governments were destroyed by this sort of droids. That was the reason all the droids of this series were ordered to be destroyed on a galactic level."

"Correct." Said Vickrein. "an example of such a command would be 'protect me from any threats'. The droid would then take upon itself to protect you from enemies, assassins, and the like. However, it would also eliminate, say, your wife holding a kitchen knife too close to you, or your child pointing a toy pistol at you."

Fear was scene on the colonel and majors face.

"However, this model seems to be one of the later series which had a very high level of intelligence and has clearly gain self-awareness with a personality to match it. A unique model indeed!" praised Vickrein.

"We must destroy it and its Master." The colonel turned to Vickrein and asked. "What do you think of this… Monster."

"He is very interesting specimen and I am now happy that I didn't come here for nothing!" a tinge of happiness could be heard under his mask. "I will kill it and dissect it with great pleasure."

"Don't overestimate your chances. That monster has been wreaking havoc for three days now!" berated the major.

"Yes, we have been able to keep him in a one location, but we have incurred heavy loses. Moral is at an all-time low and what is lefts of the planets enemy forces that were left behind have manage to escape, hiding god knows where on the planet. We are stuck here because of this calamity. "Colonel seemed desperate. "The high echelons want us to completely capture the capital, so we can announce our complete victory… so we can't do that without taking him out."

Vickrein slowly got up "Then let's not keep them waiting. I myself can't wait to see this specimen."

With a light hand gesture towards the door he said. "Please lead the way and bring me to this hell you all seem so fond of." Excitement could be heard in his sarcasm.