Confronting the Problem

Red had gone much further than he originally planned... the big empty cavern he found himself in was nowhere near the surface.

His people had been busying themselves with making tunnels. There had been tunnels and caves before they settled here. Large scaly creatures with giant teeth and long claws had occupied the planet, but his people were able to make short work of these things.

He killed several of these beasts himself which was why he was currently wearing their teeth on his armour.

At first the idea had been kind of gross, but it's not like he had much else to do. Besides, he liked how it looked... the dark red blood mixing with the natural red colour of his Tallest outfit did make him look a bit more intimidating.

Not that it mattered much... he'd been completely outmatched by the Invaders... still, there was one thing he could do to maybe give his people a shot at survival... he just didn't like the idea of actually doing it.

He held his torch out. The light only illuminated a small area around him since the cavern was very large.

A few of his soldiers were standing in the tunnel behind him. He nodded, and they began to spread out. None of them were carrying torches. They were supposed to keep quiet and still in the darkness, to make it look like the Invader and him would be speaking a bit more privately.

He handed his torch to one of the soldiers as they walked by, and the soldier carried it to the closest wall and welded it there with a blowtorch from his PAK.

This is where he was planning to meet with the Invader... and the only thing he could feel was anger.

His planet was gone...all of his peoples' accomplishments were gone... even their smeets, factories, and most of their Control Brains had been taken.

There was no way for them to create more soldiers at the moment... however, there were many Irken planets.

Before Irk fell, the Tallest had called for the remaining ships from the Armada to remove one of the Control Brains from Judgementia, and another from Devastis.

These two planets were attacked by the worms shortly after.

If the Control Brains survived they could still hold existence evaluations and have a record of their ancestor's memories. They could also reprogram themselves, but they still couldn't produce any replacement soldiers, smeets.

Perhaps if his soldiers were able to successfully hold onto these Control Brains, the machines could be reworked to build an entirely new civilization somewhere else... but for that to happen, they would need to have cloning machines, small glass tanks, robot arms, and other things he was probably forgetting.

At least the possibility was there.

Most of Irk's civilians were probably dead, or they were being tortured right now.

He started to pace when he thought about it.

His people had bought him and his soldiers the time they needed to escape. They fought with everything they had.

A few of the civilians on Foodcourtia were probably still out there somewhere... he'd warned them about the dangers before coming to this place.

Sizzlor said he'd take care of things.

Devastis had been in the middle of being evacuated when it was attacked.

He really hoped more of his people were still alive out there.

He had called back the invaders too, but some of them had been very far away and never made it to Irk.

"Sir."

His PAK whirred as it opened, and his communicator placed its self in his hand.

"What is it soldier?" he asked, holding the device up to his face.

"The Invader just arrived on the surface..."

"Search him for technology, then bring him here..." he paused for a moment before adding, "don't break him."

He wanted that privilege for himself.

"Yes sir."

He let go of the communicator, and it withdrew back into his PAK.

All he needed to do now was wait.

Glancing around the cavern, he made a mental note of where each of his soldiers was positioned. Everyone of them would be glad to see this Invader torn apart... and he would be too.

They didn't have anything to lose at this point... he wasn't expecting to make it out alive.

When he heard movement coming from the far tunnel, he turned in that direction. He could hardly contain his hatred when the Invader was led towards him.

How easy would it be to stab this thing through the head and be done with it? That would send a very stark message to his disgusting race that Irkens would never negotiate.

As soon as the Invader stopped walking, he strode over to it and snagged it by the front of its outfit.

Frightened black eyes stared into his. The Invader's antennae quivering.

This winged alien was at least a head shorter than him.

"So you're the representative then," Red noted, and he was able to get himself to release the Invader.

He motioned for the soldiers standing nearby to return to the tunnel.

"Your people have been causing us a whole lot of problems lately you know? It's been very annoying."

"Y-yes... I... I am aware of these problems..." the Invader stammered as it took an uneasy step back.

It fixed the front of his silver coloured long coat.

"However, I am hopeful we can come to a peaceful resolution."

The Tallest's antennae flattened.

He couldn't withhold his rage anymore. These creatures had taken everything away from him.

They'd taken Purple too.

Who knows what kind of sick experiments they were doing to his friend's corpse.

Red grabbed the Invader by its shoulders and shoved it to the ground. He pinned the Invader down with one of his knees as a sharp PAK leg sprang from his PAK and stabbed down into the creature's chest.

It didn't go deep enough to break any important bones probably, so the Invader should still be alive.

He twisted it in a little deeper, yet the Invader hardly moved; the creature only made a very faint whimpering sound.

"Your people are trying to wipe us out!" Red snapped at it angrily. "And we refuse to be killed or reprogrammed, so how can we possibly reach any kind of mutual agreement!? Were you hoping I would agree to become your slave!? Did you think I would ask my people to surrender to you!?"

"I did not think you would agree to that... no..." the Invader groaned. "Please... Tallest... please give me a chance to speak... you can kill me whenever you like... but this may be the only opportunity for you to talk to one of us..."

Red nearly smirked. This Invader was begging. It felt kind of good to have one of them begging after all of the devastation they caused across the entire galaxy with those worm things.

"I don't care," he responded.

"Laes cares... he's tried really hard to convince my people to give you a platform on which to speak... just take this chance...? Please?"

The Invader flinched when a sharp point from another PAK-leg touched its forehead just above its antennae.

It squirmed in discomfort and turned its head.

"I can give you answers about your origins..." the Invader tried.

"I've already read the texts and seen the videos."

Red felt the alien creature relax.

"Then... I suppose if you have no further questions... killing me will help you feel better, correct...?" the Invader asked; its voice soft and quiet. It closed his eyes and tilted its head back. "I apologize for being unable to offer you anything else..."

It would be so easy to stab the Invader to death right here, right now. The creature was oozing some kind of clear liquid from its chest. All he had to do was dig his PAK-leg in a little further.

This might be the only opportunity to get answers from the source however... besides this, it wouldn't hurt to give his people a little more time...

The Tallest withdrew his metal limbs and slowly rose to his feet.

"I'll talk to you for a bit. Get up."

The Invader slowly stood up and dusted itself off.

Its hand touched the wound to its chest, and it winced.

"Thank you Tallest... I'm glad I have been given this opportunity to speak with you..."

"You're expendable aren't you?" Red questioned, and his antennae rose a little.

He didn't like admitting it, but he was feeling a bit curious since this was the first Invader he'd ever seen in person.

"If you're suggesting that my people are not expecting me to return, you are correct."

"What did you do to tick them off?"

The Invader hesitated. Its gaze lowered to the ground to hide its troubled expression.

"My ancestors shamed themselves with a failure that cost many lives..."

"So you didn't do anything then?" Red questioned with a scowl. "I thought you would've killed a bunch of people or something." He placed a hand on his hip. "I would have liked you better if you did."

"May I ask for your name?" The Invader questioned.

"You talk kind of funny, you know that?" His scowl deepened.

"I apologize, but I do not know how to speak any differently..." The Invader tapped itself on the chest, above the injury. "My name is Sevai."

"I don't remember asking for your name..." Red spoke, squinting an eye.

He was starting to feel a bit irritated by the Invader's calm demeanor...

This had to be a trick. What else could it be?

Even if it was, this was fine... he could work with whatever. There was no way for them to escape from the Invaders anyway, so he might as well confront at least one of them head on.

"Sorry... I'm not familiar with Irken customs..." The Invader raised its eyes to meet his. "You fought very well against the worms. It was very impressive."

Red scowled at the creature.

This guy really was acting suspicious... this was definitely a trap... but there wasn't much he could do about it.

If he wanted his people to have a chance, he needed to get closer to these jerks and cause some damage somehow.

Getting captured might give him a chance to do that maybe... it was a bit of a gamble.

"Why are you trying to have a casual conversation with me?" he questioned.

"I'm extremely nervous..." Sevai admitted. "I am in the middle of your colony... when my people first met yours, this would be where creatures were taken to be devoured..."

"What do you mean...?" Red asked.

His people used to eat creatures? What kind of creatures? And why the helk was the Invader using the long dead term 'colony?'

"Back then your people lived in tunnels much like these. They lived in colonies; each one under the rule of a queen," the Invader gave him a small uneasy smile. "They would find food on the surface... large creatures... some three or four times the size of your people. It would be killed and taken back here to be consumed."

"That's disgusting..." Red told him, grimacing in disgust. He never gave much thought to what his people used to eat before curly fries and donuts... "Also, saying that kind of stuff makes you sound really old. Just how old are you?"

"I've been alive for 357 of my planet's solar rotations."

"You mean years?"

"A full rotation is equal to a year. Yes."

Why was he asking this Invader personal questions?

He needed to stop this. He dropped his arms to his sides and squeezed his hands into fists.

It was obvious that the Invader was distracting him from something.

He didn't feel the same kind of anger as he did a few moments ago though... instead he felt something else... like he'd just found a missing part of himself or something...

The reason he'd been fighting with Purple was because he started looking for answers.

What were Irkens? What was their history? Why were there defectives running against their programming?

He wanted to know these things, and he found a lot of answers on his own, but now he was talking to someone who knew more about his people than he did.

"The reason your kind is destructive isn't your fault..." Sevai told him as his antennae lowered a little and his smile faded.

" Your people were naturally strong and durable, so we experimented on them against their will... the early Irkens killed my people in self-defence because we were hurting and enslaving them... then, in our absence, your kind ended up following a program that included our own programming without the knowledge you were doing so..."

The Invader breathed a short sigh.

"None of this was your fault... and I'm sorry that our mistakes... that my family's mistakes have resulted in this..."

His soldiers moved towards both of them, stepping out of the darkness.

Red looked at them in confusion. He hadn't ordered them to move.

Their glowing red eyes were dull and their expressions were blank. He was fairly certain most of these soldiers had been killed from the worm attacks...

"I'm sorry..." Sevai apologized again before stepping backwards to allow the Irken soldiers to move in. "As the last descendant of the ones who originally altered your people, this is the only way I can repent for their crimes..."

Red smirked at him as his former soldiers grabbed him by his arms.

He could fight them off and possibly kill a good number of them, but his job was already done... while the Invaders had focused on chasing him and his soldiers, those who hadn't made it to Irk had been able to hide themselves all across the galaxy.

It was going to be a pain for the Invaders to hunt them all down, and who knows? Maybe by then someone might have figured out an actual plan.

This was all he could do... it was the last thing he could offer his people as their Tallest.

"It's kind of funny that you think repenting means repeating exactly what your relatives did all those years ago," he felt somewhat satisfied when he saw the Invader stiffen.

Then his gaze hardened.

"But just because you've captured me doesn't mean my people are finished... and you better make sure I don't escape because I will murder you slowly and very painfully if I ever get the chance."


Random quip: It would have been more surprising if this wasn't a trap.