I am Narsael, a Kernal who had stolen a cargo ship during the demise of the Kernal Star Imperium. I hunting on a remote planet. I had killed three six-legged and three-eyed lizard-like small aliens for my meal. I wore nanite armour- originally a weapon made by ELR, but had been abandoned when it left the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy for the Milky Way (Big one.) I had heard the sound of spaceships entering the atmosphere. I looked up, and squinted at the incoming fleet. I thought to the nanites to magnify, and my helmet zoomed in at the ships. I saw on the side of them, a robotic hand crushing organic matter- the bronze fist- a clear indicator that these ships were indeed ENV. I bit my lip and swore, grabbed an egg from a nest of local creatures, and sprinted back to my ship. Once inside, the nanites fell off me and clumped into a block in a corner of the inside cabin. I continued to jog into a rear cabin of the ship and placed the egg into a small cryo-stasis device, labelling the egg ‘Lanuo from Kealtare.’ I then ran to the bridge, and flew the ship out of the planet as quickly as possible. In space, I looked at the planet, bit farewells to it- and all organic life present on it- and then jumped to warp.

I opened up a star chart, and labelled Kealtare as ‘rendered uninhabitable, Network interference.’ I sighed, and then looked for a new planet to seek haven on. I acknowledged that I was probably one- if not the- last Kernals in existence. I selected a planet, and then reset my heading to it. By now ENV was a parsec behind. I looked back at the planet via his ship’s sensor array. By now it could be seen the damage that had started to occur on kealtare. Green fields had started to erode to dust, oceans made red by blood. Then, a beam tore right through the centre of the world, basting out rocks and forming a tail to the planet. Several more beams were fired, and tore out the iron core. The planet was then stripped barren from radiation, and thousands of ENV drones could be seen mining the insides of the planet and the core. Kealtare was one of dozens, maybe hundreds now, of planets stripped bare of life by ENV’s anti-organic crusade. Cursed robots they are! All those Networks, with their ‘machine superiority’ nonsense! In short, the Networks as far as I was concerned could be summed up as; MD was the ringleader, FDK likes the attention from MD, ELR was a coward by fleeing, CMT was purely treacherous, HUY had no sense of privacy, and ENV lacks to words to begin to describe their evil. ZIS was alright, she did help us after all, and I must respect that. Trident did nothing bad, but as FDK proved, give a godforsaken robot a gun is a bad idea. That basically sums ‘em up. I remember Sentoral, once my hometown on the moon Halpicor. Unlike many Kernal populations, ELR was directly responsible for Sentorals destruction. It was apparently in protest to an attempt to steal some of its stockpiled resources. A swarm of nanites devoured Sentoral. Most attacks were caused by MD’s assaults on hospitals, FDK’s bio-weapons, HUY’s tesla coils, or ENV’s rail cannons. ELR and CMT rarely attacked us, and ZIS was, as I mentioned before, still our friend. It has been thirty four years since the Kernal Star Imperium collapsed. This would mean that ENV has made over five hundred worlds lifeless. Given the rarity of life in the cosmos, and the four million stars in our galaxy, it would not seem unlikely to think that as the Networks grow, in maybe a few thousand years they would be practically immortal and that all life in the galaxy had been destroyed. Hard to think of it in such ways, but it is quite true. It is quite true… Life is essentially doomed unless a powerful being from another galaxy shows up and kicks the goddamn robots to Gordala, (an ancient Kernal phrase, meaning something along the lines of hell) but I assume it is rare for things to flee like ELR did.

My ship had dropped out of warp around Beolnak, my new refuge. An object seems to be shining, but nothing of interest for now. I landed the K.M.T. Fardual on the planet’s surface. Grass, trees with buttress roots primarily, very mountainous terrain, many holes in the ground. I got out of the ship and summoned the armour onto me. I pointed my arm at one of the holes and thought to make the some nanites on that arm form a javelin that propelled itself into the hole. It then levitated back to me, the front of it now like a fork and the rear a handle, and placed itself into my hands. I looked at the small creature on the end of it. Mammalian, two spinal cords though. I let go of the apparatus, and the armour on my back created a ‘backpack,’ into which the mammal was placed into by the nanites before the opening closed and the fork resumed its place on my arm. I walked around a bit, scouting the new land. It didn’t take long to find what looked like a house. I walked towards it, and opened the door. Inside was an alien, it was drinking something, but quickly got up at the sight of me and grabbed a gun. I relaxed myself, standing upright, tail hanging up, tapping my sickle-like claw against the floor. It said “Weol viana sorkial?!”

I didn’t understand his language, so I spoke in Kernal instead, saying “Deroina, zerou Somakaim Narsael. Grerd benoul cerdain…?” meaning ‘hello, I am Narsael. You are named…?’ I assumed it may know our language, as the Imperium grew fairly large back in its day, and Kernal was one of the dozen most frequently used languages amongst all races. The alien didn’t understand. I slumped my tail down in frustration, and breathed out heavily, accidently making a sound that scared the alien. It ran away before I could say “Erentos!” or ‘wait!’ I decided to leisure myself by looking around the house. Come to think of it, the alien was pretty short compared to most. While Kernals were typically one or two inches taller than an average alien, and I was no exception, this alien was at least a foot and a half shorter than me. I was in what seemed to be a living room/dining room, a kitchen opposite the wall left of me and a narrow hallway in front of me, which I could still fit into with a struggle. I noticed a small staircase, much too small for me to climb. So I flicked my tongue, attempting to taste anything that was up there. I found two other creatures of the same species as the other alien, but much more elderly for sure. Eventually, with the help of the second-eldest one, the eldest alien got down from the room above, and looked in fright at my reptilian form. It was drowsed in wrinkles. It said “Foralin Jeonal, weol viana sorkial?”

I took a guess at what he tried to say, and said “Zorou somakaim Kernal ampica…” Meaning ‘I am a Kernal.’

Strangely, this alien understood, and said in Kernal “But don’t Kernals have individual names? Are you sure you’re Kernal?”

I answered “Yes, Kernals do have names. Mine’s Narsael. And yes I am Kernal, why wouldn’t I be?”

The elder pointed out, that the Kernals had been wiped out, I said it was a fair point, and told him few of my kind remain. I then said “Grerd benoul cerdain?” Asking his name. It answered by calling itself Welberon. I sort of laughed at the name. The name of a Kernal admiral! A delta admiral! It occurred to me that the Star Imperium had effected the galaxy quite a bit. I was reminded of the networks at that point. Blasted evil bots! I swing my tail and hissed, before realizing I was portraying my emotions physically (I was reminded when my tail hit the aliens equivalent of a radiator, which both hurt as it was made of metal, and burned my scales.) I apologised. The creatures were curious about how a reacted to the elders name, to which I replied with “A long and painful tale to tell and hear.”

For a moment my pupil widened, then formed into a tight line as I remembered ELR’s nanite swarm devouring houses, as well as friends and family in chunks. A group took part of my arm off. As I thought of that, I felt the pain of the deep gorge still on my right shoulder. Such brutality from a coal miner! It makes you wonder just how bad it must have been if it were FDK who attacked. Bio weapons! Bio weapons! They unleashed viruses on Kanal that slowly tore people up from the inside out, making sure to drive them to insanity before an eventual death after the days- maybe weeks or months- of suffering. Of course, if CMT and MD worked together against FDK, the Kernals would have lived. No, CMT held their stockpiles like ELR did, and probably tore towns like my town up, just like ELR did. As for MD, MD slaughtered the sick in masses, whilst they were sleeping! No, I must stop thinking about this, I’m only going to barf out yesterday’s meals if I continue to think of this. And those were the last food from Kealtare, before EVN did what they do, tear up billions of little, innocent creatures because those creatures merely existed! At least MD and FDK’s rampage had some reasoning to it, however terrible it may be. Machine Superiority, what nonsense! Machines exist to serve, not to do as they please! Okay, I really must stop now, those creatures are probably getting scared as a Veresorio right now (a small, reptilian dodo-like creature that lived on Kanal). Veresorios… everything I say or think is reminding me of the collapse thirty-four years ago! My pupils widened as I fell back into my body. I said that I was going to take a walk outside, and that they were more than welcome to join me. Welberon chose to, and followed me out of his door.

“I never imagined that the Kernals looking as you do,” Welberon said to me.

I looked at him, “How so?”

“Well,” He started, “I always imagined that Kernals were not as towering as you prove to be, I also believed you had fur on you, but you do not…”

“Some Kernals do- no, did- have feathers upon them. A result of voluntary GM or that they were hybrid.”

“Hybrid?”

“Yes, a species amongst the stars were eerily similar to us, both in their appearance and in their biology, the only major difference is that they had feathers. They were once trusted allies. Many of our- and their- people were crossbreeds.”

“I see… were they shorter?”

“What? No!”

“Would evolution have drove Kernals to have feathers, instead of scales, due to Kanals natural climate?” Welberon questioned.

“A curiosity to many. It is this conundrum that has made many believe that Kanal is not our true homeworld, but rather a place we were transported to by an ancient people…” I honestly did start to take fancy to this belief.

Welberon then questioned the downfall of the Kernals. I slowly explained it to him, cursing the Networks all the way through. The other dromaeosaur species a mentioned earlier, all their worlds were devastated too, except one, an icy ball of ice around an old blue star. This place seemed to have a mysterious and ancient defence against attacks, and not to mention seems to have a ruined civilization on it that could be dated back two million years. A story was written on the insides of several of the buildings. They were written, strangely enough, in a language practically the same to Kernal, only a few minor differences. It told the tale of a starship crashing back in the planets past, and out came a race named the ‘Kernals’ they were grey-skinned with snouts that protruded outwards and four arms on their shoulders. They set up a camp, and grew into a civilization, which sent back in time the very same starship that had seeded their kind. After this, centuries of Genetic Modification had made this race sterile, and as such they travelled the void to a world where dromaeosaurs thrived, and picked up several of them and gave them sentience, placing them on an Icy world around a red dwarf, and named these creatures they made ‘Kernals’ or ‘New Kernals.’ They then made sure the New Kernals survived before heading back to their own icy ball and committing mass suicide. I believe this story is true, though many believe- no, believed- it to be false and a hoax.

Welberon asked me how I got to Beolnak, so I told him about the K.M.T. Fardual, to which he seemed surprised to hear. I asked him why he was surprised to hear the Farduals name, he said he knew it’s previous owner, who he said was called Ooniral. He said that she was Kernal, but with feathers and ‘tall’, though his description of her placed her as being almost too short for a pure Kernal, placing her as a hybrid, as the Caral (the other dromaeosaur species) were, while normally taller than this Ooniral, shorter than a Kernal and did have a number of their kind which were round about her height. He then said that he assumed, from her, that most Kernals looked like her. I then told him that she was almost certainly a hybrid, one who was of Kernal citizenship and (probably) birth. He assured me that she was born in Kernal Space, on Somardir, an old Kernal mining colony. He asked if he could have a look at the Fardual, I as such led him to it.

We walked inside my ship, and looked in awe at it. Though he had seen the ship many times before, apparently its technology still amazed him. He also said it was once a very familiar sight to him, back thirty-four years ago, and that to see it again was quite emotional. He told me of an old central spaceport and star government facility, and said it would be best to go there if I were trying to seek refuge here as I said I was. I thanked him, and we said our farewells before I took off towards the coordinates he had gave me.

I saw a city, and a spaceport that had clearly been inactive for a great time indeed. I deployed by gear, and landed the Fardual on a semi-clean pad, though moss, weeds and fungi grew all over it, the damage of time had effected the other pads much more greatly. I spotted a group children of the same alien species playing on it, they quickly moved out of the way of the Fardual. My ship landed, and I walked out. The children moved toward me slowly, fearful for sure, but curiosity overpowering it. I now believed that the younger ones of this race lacked an understanding of any xeno-languages, and I such I, not expecting an answer, said: “Doroina, zorou sorduin ampica xarn.” ‘Hello, I come a refugee”

To my surprise, one said: “Galintiuo Wanzacnir?” ‘From where?”

I replied with surprise: “Galintiuo fosno dasnira uorou albdirala, zelmoak vektorakna Sentoral, elemepo menak quentuon zelmoak Halpicor.” ‘From many places and worlds, of hatching Sentoral, upon the moon of Halpicor.’

“Unol, ELR? Sempaka govaran veron zenkaram Sentoral?” I nodded at what the alien said.

“Zorou Tormakalm Galintiuo quentuon zelmoak Halpicor, dalam xarn.”

It nodded, “Xeaten vilomun sormal sattereal.”

“Hentibte yalno.” I closed the door, and proceeded to walk towards the central spire. Long, winding roads lead through streets of curious and scared short blue aliens who quickly scuttled out of my way. Never had I felt like I had such authority.

As I neared the capital, the place got fairly quiet, with a few of the aliens seemingly shooing away the others, before leaving themselves. I looked around nervously, expecting something to happen. A bullet hit my leg. I looked towards where the bullet came from. Three soldiers, crouched down on a roof with rifles. Another bullet from them came towards me. Nanites rushed off of my other side, some surrounding the bullet and tearing it up, building more nanites as they did. The others rushed out and tore up the group’s weapons, building a load more nanites before landing on the soldier’s feet, and then some surrounding a hand, pulling it down to the roof tiles and trapping the soldiers in place. I could feel warm blood trickle down from my raised ankle. By now the blood was trickling over my claws, turning them into a dark pinkish colour. More bullets rushed from my other side, tearing through my left thigh and wounding my arm. At this point, I made all my nanites get off their targets and start flying around me, forming a protective sphere. A made some enter my wounds and form temporary fixes. The moment the nanite exoskeleton peeled off me, I collapsed onto the marble-like floor. Blood slowly stopped squirting out, but my vision fell into darkness still, and eventually I became unconscious…

I heard a loud hiss right next to me. I looked up; blackness. I looked down; blackness. Right and left; black. Forwards; black! I turned round and looked behind; the stare of a pulsating robotic eye. I jumped back, and tripped over a thick wire. I looked at the wire; a robotic head hissing. The other side of the wire charged down at me as I fell through a black pit. It had three, pulsating red eyes and wires coming from its jaw that short-circuited, creating bangs with light lighting up an invisible and black wall. I fell into a liquid. I looked around: nanite eyes staring at me. They faded as I struggled. I fell again into yet another metallic ocean. I started to suffocate. A Kernal with the tail of a fish and leg like a fish’s tail too swam to me, and handed me a drink. I span the drink around, and it stayed fixed to the cup. I drank it, and I could breathe. I looked at the Kernal again. She smiled, and then her eyes turned robotic, and glowed red as the skin around her jaw crumpled apart, revealing a wicked robot mouth grinning, normal Kernal teeth turning into metallic patches and eventually into completely metal teeth.

…Meanwhile, back on Bealnak, The aliens had more soldiers gather around the sphere. An armoured van drove into the scene. A decorated alien stepped out, and in its language said: “Is this it?”

“Yes sir, this is the orb the alien is in.”

“Any idea what the ghastly xeno came here for?”

“No sir, but this orb seems to be for protection.”

“First contact, and it attacks three of my men. What was it thinking?!”

“An alien won’t have rational thoughts, sir.”

“Obviously, Professor Resnoran Vesnoran!”

“Sorry sir,”

The alien general walked over to the orb with his lieutenant. He pointed at a nearby soldier. “Oi! Put and unclothed hand into that thing!” The soldier nodded and took of its glove, then stuck its hand through. It pulled its hand back out after a few seconds, revealing it to be completely unharmed. “What’d it feel like?!” Shouted the general to it.

“Like… like water!” It said, surprised by the orbs texture

“Stick your gun’s muzzle in!” The soldier nodded again, put back on its glove, and stuck in its gun’s muzzle. Its arms shook, and it tried to hold it still. A huge ripple emitted from where his gun was, and waves lapped over the orb as it grew. He pulled out its gun, to find the muzzle gone. It looked at the gun, mouth wide open like a goldfish. The General looked at the gun, then turned to his lieutenant as he turned to the general. “What you make of it?” Said the General, part under breath.

“I don’t know sir, but whatever that thing is, it’s advanced- and deadly.”

“Aye…” The General turned back to the van, the Lieutenant just behind him. Just before the Genral got in, he turned to the still gaping soldier. “We’ll replace that gun of yours. We’ll add a bonus if you come here and describe in detail what that orb was like, everything from your thoughts and feelings, down to texture, sound, and even taste. The soldier hurried along into the van, where he was told to sit down at a table and answer the every question from a group of generals, scientists, and politics who were in the van. The General and Lieutenant walked to the fore of the van.

“Sir…?” Said the Lieutenant nervously.

“Mmm?”

“I-I would like to send someone into the orb to look at the beast in it…” he stammered

“How?!” shouted the General, making the group at the back turn round and look at them, except for the other General in it, of course.

“If we send someone in simple clothing without any metal, the nanites may not notice…”

“Hmm…” wondered the General, “But where to find someone?”

“The outskirts sir, plenty of people eager to actually do something with their failed lives lie there. It won’t even be conscription- hundreds of homeless volunteers will come clawing at the chance.” The General nodded, and opened his mouth to speak-

The cyborg Kernal grabbed me with its arm. I stared at its hand as its manus disintegrated into bio-mechanoid clockwork. The tail turned into a long, segmented metal tail, like that of a scorpion. The world turned yellow, then a red shone through. Slowly the strange world turned a darkish blue, it became lighter and lighter, my skin reflecting this light like the cyborgs’ metallic layers. Blood started to rush up from where its flesh met metal, and it changed from green to crimson is but a few seconds. Everything went light. I heard a high pitch wail, and a sharp pain through my arm. A bubble of darkness surrounded me, but outside it was still lighter than heaven. Two red eyes peered at me, then red eyes everywhere, the eyes of the cyborg. I looked right- It had sunk its teeth inches deep into my right shoulder. I tried to shove it off, but my left wrist had another jaw of the cyborg gripping onto it. I tried to kick them. But my feet were tripped. I felt tears roll down from my eyes, then circle around them. I looked down, a blue halo wrapped around me. Suddenly I started to move downward, faster and faster, until I saw stars flash by the tunnel I fell down. If I had hair, I swear my head would have been pulled off by it, the force of the fall. I looked up, and I saw Sentoral, it changed from green to the same yellow I saw before. Then, a huge beam shot through it, and it crumbled into an asteroid belt. The claws of the cyborg pulled open my mouth. I felt something climbing up it. I closed my eyes as I felt my throat being clawed at. I felt my tongue getting dig into, forming great blistering marks of blood across my tongue as a Lanuo climbed out and flew in front of me. Then, both the Lanuo and the cyborgs started to whirl around me, forming an orb. I looked down, a robotic shark charging towards me with its jaw wide open. I entered its jaw, a sonic boom shattering my ears as I fell into its belly. The world fell black again. I walked around. Ghosts formed around me. My dad, my mother, my brother, my wife, and, my young son. The ghosts flickered like a hologram. They smiled and laughed, and I did too, remembering them. Soon though, their faces turned to despair, crying in fear. I furrowed the ridges around my eyes. My eyes widened, my mouth opened, and no voice spoke: “Negative, Negative, Protocol 14, initiate. Inbound axis avatars predicted to have trajectory to coordinates. Eta: ten, nine, e-e-e-eight, tch-“ I stopped, shocked at my voice’s change. I repeated out in desperation “ELR’s nanites, they coming for you! Run, run, run! Please! Please! PLEASE!!! RUN!!!” I would have continued, but in came ELR’s nanites, like swarms of hornets. They shredded up my crying family as the screamed out in pain. “No…” Tears rolled down, and clustered into nanites.

Military cars rolled into the outskirts of the alien capital. Sure enough, hundreds of homeless men and women, child and elderly, lied there, starving and freezing in the harsh industrial lands. Many were trying to sleep, holding onto cheap, plastic blankets shared between many, their eyes flickering open and closed. Soldiers got out, and held up megaphones, calling out for volunteers. Dozens of the people there got up and ran towards the military vehicles, tumbling over those on the ground and crushing each other.

“How many will have died?” Said one soldier to another.

“Few dozen. Does it matter?” Replied the other one.

“Nah.” Said the first one, they looked at each over, then laughed.

Seven made it to the cars. The soldiers pulled one forward, and threw the other six some cheap blankets, before driving off back to the spire. Many were mourning those who had just been crushed, but welcomed the six blankets that barely kept out the cold.

Once the cars had got to the centre, the chosen man was told to take off whatever he had on him, and to put on some wool clothing, which he did gladly. He was escorted to the nanite orb, and told to walk through. He hesitated, fearful of it. Surrounding soldiers taunted him, throwing pennies into the orb that causes ripples as it grew, or calling him a coward. He eventually walked through. To his surprise it felt like water, but he was still completed dry. He walked into the other side, and saw a huge reptile lying across the floor. He kneeled down next to it. He prised open its eyes, and stared into the out-of-focus slit pupils in the amber eyeball. He stared at the left hand, foot and right foot’s dark pink claws, and the blood dripping from wounds filled with metal- the same metal that made the sphere around him.

…The nanite swarm filled everything, turning the world into a translucent grey ocean. I looked around, expecting to see a MerKernal again. I saw Cyborg Mernals staring at me from a distance; I made a rude hand gesture to every last one of them. I heard a roar, and saw bubbles float up and around me. I looked from where the bubbles came from. Two huge, red robotic eyes, staring at me, a metallic grin of metallic teeth taunting me. It charged towards me. It was the robot shark again. I put my hand out and hit it, pushing it away from me with superKernal strength. My Arm, surrounded by nanites. I remembered reality, my memories falling into place. I felt something hold onto my face. Two fingers, around my eye, prising it open. I saw the dream, with an out-of-focus view of a short blue alien- like Welberon dressed in a baggy wool shirt and trousers, inside of my nanite orb. It let go of my eye, and I returned back into my dream. The shark was falling apart, and so were the Mernals. The ocean drained, and I appeared lying down inside a metallic sphere. The world rippled away, asif milk was being poured onto me. I regained consciousness in reality, and opened one eye to see the blue alien staring at my bloody claws. I breathed out a heavy breathe of air, which startled the alien, making it jump round to see my nostrils flare, and my eyes open wide.



(To be continued...)