Earth was sickened and weak, calamitous global weather resulted in famine and hardship, something faced by all in the year 2060. The consequence of immoral plundering and war committed by our world's governments. Amidst a ruinous climate emergency and numerous horrific conflicts, a strange man leapt up to grab the world's attention with his offer.
"I am here to speak against them, unite behind my cause of good and end their grip upon our planet. If you do so, a beautiful restoration will occur. They ask you to keep loyal to them, what do they reward you with? Misery. Well, here's my promise to you." Through hijacked global broadcast these words rang out like a bell, calling all those who were hungry to listen with keen ears. Though, the governments at the top simply sneered, like hyenas they cackled at the man's preposterous claims, they gave an excuse that peace and health of the world was not that simple.
Until it was. His promise was sparked and came to fruition. Unknown to all, the speaker housed a brilliant scientist and engineer by his side, once renowned the world over for his innovations, strange objects began to fill the sky days after his speech. Catastrophic hurricanes and droughts would slow the following weeks. The scientist had developed what he called 'Weather instrumentation satellites' to reverse and control the climate for good, these changes targeted only the most at risk regions. The sick and hungry began to recover, on account of the man who gave them a promise, he had fulfilled it. But there was still much to be done.
The UN's Space Force, an organisation responsible for the orbital upholding of law, under the orders of the United States would shoot down all 3 of these satellites. The speaker's words rang true, and the world's governments attempt at truly repressing them became known to all.
The first light of Earth's liberation blossomed, the Speaker erupted in passion with his reactionary speeches to this incident, calling to all suffering people's of the planet to rise. They responded, looking to the legendary figure as some sort of guiding light. Billions rose with hands held high, the ruler's domains, being government buildings, were stormed on masse around the globe.
It took the populace 3 days to encompass the world and remove their oppressors. How could their leaders fight against the ones who waged their wars? Drove their cars? Cleaned their toilets? It was too much. The speaker who united the world in liberation was given a humbler title then his achievement deserved. ''Shepherd'', the fantastic genius behind his work also made himself known, and the public deemed him ''Architect''.
A provisional world government was established off of the trust in communities for a few days, when finally Shepherd and Architect gave their first speech in the abandoned UN.
"The hardships are complete, we as humanity are a tide, and we have won. Our gentle hand will never prick at you, nor demand anything but your good nature as humans to continue, the end of humanity as a warring and selfish species has begun. We shall peacefully deliver you all to the comfort and benevolence that is deserved by the people of your calibre."
Shepherd reshaped all of the globe's territories under one banner, he believed simple names like republics or empires to denote something was too primitive, and therefore named it something both radical and simple. ''The Peace Collective." was denoted to all territory under the Shepherd, and it would be a bold claim that land under the Shepherd only knew peace.
Over the next few years, the Shepherd released many old government figures to gently lead sections of the Earth, and the moon colonies previously established under the old governments. The Architect designed complex food-growth systems with new and wonderful technologies, hundreds of 'Weather Instrumentation Satellites' were also released into orbit, an era of prosperity would soon come.
No one could tell when the Shepherd began to slip. Though the catalyst was the development of an age-preservation and regression serum by the Architect, aimed at extending both of the great men's lives so that they would not fall, and their work with it.
Years would pass by quickly for the two at this point, after a hundred years every planet in the solar system was colonised by the great technologies of the Architect, and a hundred years after that, each rock-planet was fully terraformed to fit the needs of its inhabitants, humans. The 'Peace' Collective grew, but changed.
The Shepherd altered his persona, all referred to him as the 'Lord-Shepherd' now and he grew ever more power hungry and egotistical as each decade ran by. He turned the collective into a military hyperpower via demands to the concerned genius, the Architect turned the Lord-Shepherd's wishes into reality, creating vast fleets of advanced star ships, energy-directed weapons, and superhuman and robotically enhanced soldiers to utilise these instruments of destruction.
Control of the people became absolute, and suffering began again as slave forces were made to drive forward the great war machine of the Peace Collective. The Architect by this point was made to be cooped up in his research, after apparent threats of assassination the Lord-Shepherd kept him completely cut off and naïve to the consequences of his creations.
The year 2332 was marked by the Great Moon Dying. Saturn's moon Io had finally revolted against the Peace Collective, the Lord-Shepherd was furious. He gathered a fleet of star ships, and did the unthinkable, ashing the entire moon with payloads of ship fire. Billions died in the cracking of the moon. The great massacre was covered up, and afterwards the Lord-Shepherd asked the Architect to make thinking machines with the ability to grow perfectly mirrored to humans.
Leading figures were slowly replaced with these AI indistinguishable from humans, absolutely loyal to the Lord-Shepherd, as it was input into their code. A rebellion like this could not be repeated, all was his.
It is the year 2463, 403 years after the liberation of the Earth. The Architect has wizened up to the great evils of his supposed colleague and friend. Though deems himself stupid and none the better for being so ignorant to the events caused by his technology.
The Lord-Shepherd now wishes for him to develop Faster than Light travel so he could expand his regime to other solar-systems, eventually to the entire galaxy. Either that, or he would have to create a time machine for his ruinous tyrant of a buddy. When the man asked these things of him, he knew with certainty that if he did not complete these things, the Lord-Shepherd would have little struggle to kill and replace him with a supercomputer.
I write to myself as a means to cope, my technology has killed billions, I'm sorry. It will have to stop.
The written notebook is slammed shut by my quivering hand. Today was finally the day. I had developed Time-Travel!
I look around my personal study, memoirs of me and that evil man were present throughout the room, as well as a jumble of wires and not yet developed technology haphazardly spread on the floor. In front of my glistening study desk is a greyed boring box, similar in look to a cryo-pod of our older star ships. Hope for me was replaced long ago with quotas to fill out his ego however looking upon this creation of mine gave me a slither of that emotion back.
I was supposed to be the guiding light for humanity with him. Now look at me, a puppet for a virus of leader, one who had once promised me and the Earth so much. Liar. It will end today. My synthetic hand clenches with a whirr as I think, most of my humanly features were replaced by robotic mockery, of my own volition, and the added insistence of my 'colleague', us two are the most mechanically enhanced people in the Collective for our apparent safety. I hear many have actually tried to assassinate him, as much as he tries to cover it up in front of me.
I sit up from my chair, my head almost hitting the ceiling as I do so, the robotic enhancements have heightened me significantly, I used to be a standard 5'11, now a towering 6'4 to most, except him, of course. My feet carry me eagerly over to various whiteboards, scribbled upon them are numerous inked calculations regarding the theory of time travel and it's application.
Space-time is influenced solely by mass, enough mass and you can bend and manipulate space-time to your will. Specific injections of mass will send you to whenever time you deem. My personal eye implants expand and light up in a faint blue hue as I fall into a state of technology induced hyper focus. My brain's neurons are fired with artificial bioelectricity as blaring mistakes in the completed equation being scanned by my retina make my head spin.
It's not fully complete. But it has a chance of working, I just have to risk it at this point, no more time left. I feel a tube in my ear slightly compress, and I hear heavy footsteps far down the hallway leading to my study. I wander back over to my desk in order to hide my notebook, and a couple minutes later, there's a loud bang at the metal of my door.
I key the code in on the keypad, pneumatic tubes spouted compressed air out of their nozzles as the pressurised door opened with a whoosh. The dark hallway in the open door's place is massive, in the blackness are piercing red glows that vanish and reappear every quarter second, like the recording light of a camera. The Shepherd's personal guard. I have to look up just to see their horrifying crimson pupils, their eye implants made by me to apparently 'intimidate in a friendly manner'. They are hulking beasts, over 8 feet tall.
"Lord Architect." I hate that name. A guard grumbles from his lungs as he speak, his words were meant to respect, but that tone is full of hostility. I know he could snap me in two very easily if I wasn't as enhanced as I was.
"Yes?" The word hung on my tongue, I was acting as calm as possible. Their retina can pick up on the slightest of expression changes, their ears the faintest of heartbeats.
"The Lord Shepherd requests your presence on the bridge. It is regarding the progress of your project." Another speaks up, his growls reverberating against the metallic walls of the inky hallway.
"Let's go at once then." I respond with little emotion, and blink as I wander out of my cramped study into the colossal hall. I built my room smaller then most of the corridors on the Shepherd's flagship so that him and his soldiers had to crouch whenever they were in my space, the little victories I suppose.
We now continue into the hallway, our steps sound echoes which carry themselves through the long and straight void ahead. I designed and engineered this star ship to be the heart of the Collective, it is over a hundred kilometres long, and 30 kilometres wide, though it's not the prettiest thing ever, it certainly is imposing.
Everything from massive artificial training environments, fit with ecosystem domes to bring up the newest forces of the Shepherd, or small towns worth of residences to house my scientists along with various travelling representatives and crew members of the ship are all features of this great achievement. I lament its use for evil as we finally reach our destination.
One of the guards knock on a towering metallic frame, it is a pneumatic gate that dwarfs even the heightened super soldiers. With a few clicks and whirrs, it comes to life, scraping its self open like an awakened beast. What it reveals is the bridge of the ship, a beautiful transparent dome spans the entirety of the titanic room, looking upon the absolute black of space.
Smaller and larger dots of grey speck the night, the escort ships of our metal colossus, and a large cruiser passes close by, casting the room in shadow for a moment.
In the centre of the bridge, a podium presents the towering man who I used to call a friend. His back is exposed, and amongst it his muscles are ridged and moving, each a mechanical part running across his body. Various blue tinted holograms move and rotate around him, a port attaches a cable from above into his neck, he has full dominion over this ship through his own mind. Weapon systems which blow planets into dust able to go off at a mere thought.
The Lord Shepherd unplugged himself from the port, pivoting to look at me with the blinkering blue lights of his eyes. It's a rather heavy ordeal to be in the presence of the most powerful man in existence.
"Gale!" He calls me by my first name, I only hear it from him, his familiarity only makes it more sickening. A big smile upon his face as he greets me.
"Markus." I must be one of very few able to call him by his real name. Though as of late I'm sure his ego as of late will make it so no one remembers it, even me. I muster up a gentle smile in response to his greeting.
"How's the time travel work." His eyes narrowed. He was scoping me out for any odd mannerisms, so it's true, his suspicion has grown as of late.
I swallow. It's quite difficult hiding your emotions when you've planted explosives in the ship as a means of conducting your rebellious plan to overthrow a incomprehensibly powerful leader.
"Very good, should be done by the end of the year, fantastic progress has been made." A blatant lie slips from my mouth.
"Is that so." The Lord Shepherd speaks, all familiarity drains from his voice as he speaks with a chilling flatness.
I hear footsteps from behind, another evil bastard slinks into the bridge room. The Shepherd's second in command. One of few who were allowed age regressive serum. He has lived for over 200 years, still an infant compared to us, but a rotten little one. He advised the Shepherd to go through with the Great Moon Dying, and from what I know, commands the army and secret police to purge thousands of 'dissidents' and inefficient slave workers daily.
The Commander's words slither out of him due to his snake like voice.
"We've found something regrettable, Lord Architect." I take a look behind me, in his hands is my notebook. I must have stored every known curse towards the Collective and my 'Dear friend' the Lord Shepherd in there, my calm façade decays into a feeling of terror at what comes next.
"You lied to me about the time machine just now too." The Lord Shepherd's massive eleven foot frame sighs.
My silence is pungent in the air. I cannot even speak a word out of fear.
"There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen. A quote by Vladimir Lenin, it seems he was right about that. You've fitted decades of work into weeks. We know you've completed the time machine." Markus has stripped me of all my secrets, I have barely anything now.
It's time to face the music, I'll be greeted by a calming silence of death in the following moments most likely.
I blink. My fist clenches. My people are suffering, if I die before my revenge blossoms into anything more then a meagre tantrum then the Collective will face a much harsher campaign of repression then anything before.
The explosions are still primed.
"We conquered our star together. It saddens me that we have to end things off like this, from that first moment we gathered our aims at the university, I knew we would reach greatness, except your reach has waned. My grasp still has centuries to go." The Shepherd's heavy booming steps fill the room.
"I'll piss on your grave. Star Tyrant." Words of venom spit from my mouth, yet they feel like the deepest truths I've ever spoken. I bite down on my molar, the activation signal.
The explosives spark, and a thermal shockwave sends the ship alight. Corridors are cursed with a great inferno that licks upwards towards us. Everyone but the Lord-Shepherd and his guards are knocked from their feet. I am blasted towards the observation glass of the bridge, which is unfortunately on the other side of the exit gate.
Thoughts gush into my head like a river as I position my legs before impact with the glass to instead push off of it. My mechanical apparatuses embedded within my thighs scream and click as they send me darting towards the exit gate. Multiple guards open fire on me with their directed energy weapons, luckily all developed by me, I know their ins and outs. Pulses of light are upon me in moments, though they are met by my personal energy field, which they scratch and claw against to no avail, before dissipating into nothing.
My artificial fist tightens, punching a hole straight through the pneumatic gate. Like a wild animal I clamber out in moments and into the hell scape that is the corridor. Flame spit at me almost instantly, my energy shield is switched to it's thermal mode, turning a deep orange. Though even with this the temperature is almost unbearable.
I sprint through hellfire, flames and smoke are my only vision, I have to rely on sonar beams which accurately map out the surfaces of the hallway to walk forward.
Then I hear it. The tubes in my ears compress to allow me to sense it clearly. The strange quickness of a titan barrelling down the corridor.
The Lord-Shepherd has come, and he was upon me instantly. A great fist shatters my jaw as pain barrages me. My body ragdolls and spins through the hallway uncontrollably. Pain suppressants kick in instantly, and nanobots get to work with mending my skin and bone, within a couple of seconds, I was back up.
"I'm going to mangle you into something that not even nanobots can fix." His threats seem as true as the sky being blue. He charges towards me once more.
A compartment within my wrist expands with a click, small rocket propelled objects spew from it, all carrying EMP devices in order to take out his defences.
I watch in horror as his pupils dart from rocket to rocket, he eyes them all, even through the thick smoke. A small greyish blob darts from his body, the blob quickly splits off an meets most of the rockets, disintegrating them into dust. I had almost forgotten about the defensive nanobots I had given him.
Two of the twelve rockets fired remained, and hope was still sufficient for me to think they'd hit. I see as he grabs one out of the air at an incomprehensible speed, using it to drive into the other one, as they both stream down the corridor behind the hulk of a man.
By this point the flickering red lights of the personal guard had appeared through the smoke, I had to run. My legs pulsed with bioelectricity as my augments launched me off the ground towards my room at break leg speeds. I rounded the corner with just moments to spare before a colossal energy pulse ripped through the corridor, it would've punched straight through my field.
The guards contained both light and heavy energy weaponry at their disposal, it was truly a nightmare. My mind pauses to process the person now in front of me.
The Lord-Shepherd had beaten me to my objective, he must've circled around another route, after all he is much faster then me. He was leaning against the door of my study mockingly.
"The Dog has nowhere to run." He sneers.
"I'll bet your ass I do." I reply mockingly back.
My assumption of getting past him is shattered in mere moments as a metal slug punches through my arm, reducing it to a fleshy mass on the floor, gun smoke slithers out of his barrel. Before I can respond to the pain he charges at me, I twist my body to the side, an attempt to avoid the punch he sends out at me.
It fucking hurts.
He twists the punch into a hook and nails me in the liver, I am sent flying behind him. Towards my room! The pain suppressants allow me to stand enough to punch in the code to the keypad, my retinal scanners allow me to do this within a fraction of a second fortunately, just enough to avoid a second blast from that damnable slug launcher of his.
I barrel into my study, clawing with bloodied hands to the grey machine, catching it open and latching it shut within an instant. My door is blown open to reveal a smoking corridor and a plethora of red eyes.
They all unload upon my machine, pulses of energy and slugs fill the room. Luckily I had it made out of the same stuff I created the outside of the ship with. They bounce off of my machine uselessly. As the smoke clears I see them all outside the viewing port of my invention, eyeing me like a predator.
"Whatever you plan to do with that, know it won't end well." The Shepherd speaks up.
"Shall we use our busters? Lord-Shepherd?" A guard speaks up.
"No need, it'll punch a hole through the entirety of a ship I'd wager." Markus reasons, at least he has some sense left in him.
Their voices sound stuffy and muffled through the machine, and they all look up at me when they hear the punching in of a pad. I enter the co-ordinates of my desired destination, the exact mass injection is readied as the machine whirrs to life.
"Markus, science has led you to this point, and now it ends you, how do you beat something that is timeless?" I crack at his ego. He scowls.
"Fucking bastard! Use the busters! NOW!" He orders the guards with a panic I had not seen in him for a long time, he knows what I plan to do with the time machine. It's too late, the mass injects into the engine of the machine, and space throws its self into chaos, ripping apart around me. My vision turns blurry, including the figure of the Shepherd and his guards.
My last memory of before the activation is of throwing up and descending into a deep pain.
A migraine sends my head spinning as I am tipped into a deep blackness, I have no concept of anything, there is nothing. Is this death? Did my machine fail? A coughing fit awakens me from this dark theory.
My eyes crack open. My nose inhales, a deep dry dusty smell overwhelms me. The air is stale. Something is wrong. I am no longer in my machine.
My hands feel cold and desolate stone under them. No matter the location, my time machine had worked! I slap the stone with my hand in celebration, but my mind then catches up with me.
Just where the hell was my machine? My retina expand to easily adjust to the darkness present in the room, I look around to see my arm marked with red, a sign that the nanobots had not fully completed my recovery, my bioelectricity is depleted.
A wicked laugh knocks me out of my thinking stupor, multiple small footsteps smacked against the stone, something was approaching.
Something odd.