November 23rd, 2880 AD
Vancouver Hive
23:18 Local Time
Deep, deep in the dark depths of the Earth... the heart of the BETA force on Earth lay, ensconed in a fortress that was beyond the ability of most earthly powers to dislodge. Like a cancer that had taken root in the bone, the depths of the largest BETA Hive on the planet was thought to be as unreachable as the highest reaches of Heaven. Within its halls, light pulsated like the beating of a heart, sending waves of color off walls that had been mined with such precision, and such finish that they seemed to almost have a reflective sheen of their own. The only sound in this place was the distant, muffled work of BETA thumping through the underground caverns, either at work or en route to sectors where they were needed as the Hive continued its expansion ahead of schedule.
...that was, until a new noise caused some to pause in their work. A low, shrill whine, growing in volume. It wasn't until the floor itself began to shake that the Grappler Class in the caverns began to mobilize towards the source.
vwwwweEEEEEEEEEE-
With an explosion of rock, dust, and BETA biomatter, a long, keen drill burst from the floor the innermost sanctum. A bright blue Super Robot leapt forth from the new tunnel beneath. The light flashed against its features - similar, but not dissimilar to the mass-produced Getter Gs that had once defended Saotome's Laboratory... yet, there was something inherently different about it. The way it moved, perhaps, or the slight differences in its features. A flick of its right hand - and a missile was sent screaming down its entry tunnel, collapsing it in on itself with a roar of fire.
As it did so, multiple towering dark shapes erupted from behind it, snaking across the ground towards the entrances as the towering Invaders made their presence known, each one a howlign mass of spines, eyeballs, and biomechanical muscle as they flowed through the gaps in the gates like water - and the ensuing noise as the intruders collided with the defenders.
"Oh no, please. Don't get up." Said a voice from the Metal Beast Liger, accompanied immediately by its companion:
"Not on our account."
The infested Super Robot crouched - and a figure dropped from its waist. Too high up for an ordinary human, especially one who appeared to be of such advanced age... but he landed as light as a feather, accompanied shortly by his co-pilots, who fell behind him in a loose triangle formation with practiced ease. All three surveyed the interior in silence... before the leader spoke.
"So, this is what the inner sanctum is like. Our drawings were way off."
"After so much blood was shed on Mars... I expected it to be grander. You monsters have no sense of beauty."
Dr. Yoshio Saotome gave a derisive sniff. Not for long had he returned to the land of the living, and he was already missing the blackness of death, for it would have been preferable to this wretched cancer upon the planet. Instead, as if already disgusted by it, he turned around.
"My dear friends." He said, addressing the other two with wide open arms:
"Is this not what we always dreamed of? To stand here, in the heart of the pestilence that infests our world?"
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern nodded, tears glistening at the corners of their eyes as they clasped Saotome's shoulders. The First Getter Team reunited, their once-failed mission soon to be accomplished - it was emotional moment, one that not even the horrid creatures that infested their bodies could seem to suppress entirely.
"That's right."
"Today, Alternative III will be avenged."
"We shall set right what once went wrong."
"And correct mankind's course towards evolution!"
Behind them, as if incensed by this sudden act of mutant camaraderie, a form unraveled itself from the mound at the center of the room. Thin and wiry, it stared at the intruders with three sets of eyes, tentacles waving gently about it wearily.
"Carbons."
"So you can speak." Said Saotome, surprise filling his features - but was corrected, as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern leaned in conspirationally over his shoulders, giving them the appearance of a three-headed monster.
"Not normally, Doctor."
"We took the liberty of tapping into its frequency, for lack of better word."
Saotome waved off the other two, and approached the mound. To think, he thought, that the accomplishment he could only dream about fifty years ago was here, in the palm of his hand?
"What is it that brings you to Earth?" He asked;
"Why have you come to menace mankind?"
"We come to harvest resources. That is the task allocated to us by our Creators. Carbons are merely obstacles to be removed as necessary."
"I see. So we are no different to you than troublesome locusts, devouring your crops."
"No."
There was a distant boom, and a wet crunch as something heavy impacted the doors. It was impossible to tell whether the Invaders or the BETA had the upper hand, but all present were grateful they weren't part of the whirlwind of flesh, tooth and claw taking place just outside. The Superior BETA almost seemed to narrow its eyes in contempt, as its tentacles waved scornfully.
"You are no longer a carbon. You are a parasite. We know your kind well. Your gluttonous hunger is only surpassed only by your envy."
Saotome chuckled.
"Parasite, is it?"
As he spoke, two things happened. The Superior's tentacles suddenly lashed forward, impaling the Doctor through the chest - but he was ready. His own fingers extended - and likewise lanced out like spears, black matter piercing the heart of the Superior. The light beneath flickered terribly, as a dark matter began to trickle out from the wounds on the Superior, slicking down into the Hive's control organ.
"Better a parasite than a slave." Said the Doctor levelly, the tiny claws of an Invader visible about his lost eye as it peered out in hatred at the foe that scorned it.
Even so, the Superior fought with everything it had. While it was not aware of the status of its peers on the other planets, it at least could be assured they would not allow such an affront to pass. In time, the Invaders would know fear.
"Even if we fall, there will be more. You cannot... stop us all. We shall bury you... as we have... all others-"
With that dire warning, it succumbed, vanishing beneath the black. The Hive around them, momentarily, grew still. Saotome watched this with satisfaction, pulling the tentacles out of his chest with an unfeeling grunt before plunging his hands into the mass of ichor now oozing from the hive. He was soon joined by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who similarly drove their fingertips into its surface.
"Good! Let them come!" Hissed the Doctor, with uncharacteristic malice.
Beneath their hands, the BETA began to beat anew. A quickened, lively pulse that went in time with their own heartbeats, as their genes melded with that of the control structure. A mad grin was shared between all three. The ecstasy of evolution!
"All will join us in wondrous evolution... Haha, hahahaha!"
That terrible, raucous laughter of the trio seeemed to echo all through the halls of the Hive, and shake the very bones of the planet itself...
Vancouver Hive
23:18 Local Time
Deep, deep in the dark depths of the Earth... the heart of the BETA force on Earth lay, ensconed in a fortress that was beyond the ability of most earthly powers to dislodge. Like a cancer that had taken root in the bone, the depths of the largest BETA Hive on the planet was thought to be as unreachable as the highest reaches of Heaven. Within its halls, light pulsated like the beating of a heart, sending waves of color off walls that had been mined with such precision, and such finish that they seemed to almost have a reflective sheen of their own. The only sound in this place was the distant, muffled work of BETA thumping through the underground caverns, either at work or en route to sectors where they were needed as the Hive continued its expansion ahead of schedule.
...that was, until a new noise caused some to pause in their work. A low, shrill whine, growing in volume. It wasn't until the floor itself began to shake that the Grappler Class in the caverns began to mobilize towards the source.
vwwwweEEEEEEEEEE-
With an explosion of rock, dust, and BETA biomatter, a long, keen drill burst from the floor the innermost sanctum. A bright blue Super Robot leapt forth from the new tunnel beneath. The light flashed against its features - similar, but not dissimilar to the mass-produced Getter Gs that had once defended Saotome's Laboratory... yet, there was something inherently different about it. The way it moved, perhaps, or the slight differences in its features. A flick of its right hand - and a missile was sent screaming down its entry tunnel, collapsing it in on itself with a roar of fire.
As it did so, multiple towering dark shapes erupted from behind it, snaking across the ground towards the entrances as the towering Invaders made their presence known, each one a howlign mass of spines, eyeballs, and biomechanical muscle as they flowed through the gaps in the gates like water - and the ensuing noise as the intruders collided with the defenders.
"Oh no, please. Don't get up." Said a voice from the Metal Beast Liger, accompanied immediately by its companion:
"Not on our account."
The infested Super Robot crouched - and a figure dropped from its waist. Too high up for an ordinary human, especially one who appeared to be of such advanced age... but he landed as light as a feather, accompanied shortly by his co-pilots, who fell behind him in a loose triangle formation with practiced ease. All three surveyed the interior in silence... before the leader spoke.
"So, this is what the inner sanctum is like. Our drawings were way off."
"After so much blood was shed on Mars... I expected it to be grander. You monsters have no sense of beauty."
Dr. Yoshio Saotome gave a derisive sniff. Not for long had he returned to the land of the living, and he was already missing the blackness of death, for it would have been preferable to this wretched cancer upon the planet. Instead, as if already disgusted by it, he turned around.
"My dear friends." He said, addressing the other two with wide open arms:
"Is this not what we always dreamed of? To stand here, in the heart of the pestilence that infests our world?"
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern nodded, tears glistening at the corners of their eyes as they clasped Saotome's shoulders. The First Getter Team reunited, their once-failed mission soon to be accomplished - it was emotional moment, one that not even the horrid creatures that infested their bodies could seem to suppress entirely.
"That's right."
"Today, Alternative III will be avenged."
"We shall set right what once went wrong."
"And correct mankind's course towards evolution!"
Behind them, as if incensed by this sudden act of mutant camaraderie, a form unraveled itself from the mound at the center of the room. Thin and wiry, it stared at the intruders with three sets of eyes, tentacles waving gently about it wearily.
"Carbons."
"So you can speak." Said Saotome, surprise filling his features - but was corrected, as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern leaned in conspirationally over his shoulders, giving them the appearance of a three-headed monster.
"Not normally, Doctor."
"We took the liberty of tapping into its frequency, for lack of better word."
Saotome waved off the other two, and approached the mound. To think, he thought, that the accomplishment he could only dream about fifty years ago was here, in the palm of his hand?
"What is it that brings you to Earth?" He asked;
"Why have you come to menace mankind?"
"We come to harvest resources. That is the task allocated to us by our Creators. Carbons are merely obstacles to be removed as necessary."
"I see. So we are no different to you than troublesome locusts, devouring your crops."
"No."
There was a distant boom, and a wet crunch as something heavy impacted the doors. It was impossible to tell whether the Invaders or the BETA had the upper hand, but all present were grateful they weren't part of the whirlwind of flesh, tooth and claw taking place just outside. The Superior BETA almost seemed to narrow its eyes in contempt, as its tentacles waved scornfully.
"You are no longer a carbon. You are a parasite. We know your kind well. Your gluttonous hunger is only surpassed only by your envy."
Saotome chuckled.
"Parasite, is it?"
As he spoke, two things happened. The Superior's tentacles suddenly lashed forward, impaling the Doctor through the chest - but he was ready. His own fingers extended - and likewise lanced out like spears, black matter piercing the heart of the Superior. The light beneath flickered terribly, as a dark matter began to trickle out from the wounds on the Superior, slicking down into the Hive's control organ.
"Better a parasite than a slave." Said the Doctor levelly, the tiny claws of an Invader visible about his lost eye as it peered out in hatred at the foe that scorned it.
Even so, the Superior fought with everything it had. While it was not aware of the status of its peers on the other planets, it at least could be assured they would not allow such an affront to pass. In time, the Invaders would know fear.
"Even if we fall, there will be more. You cannot... stop us all. We shall bury you... as we have... all others-"
With that dire warning, it succumbed, vanishing beneath the black. The Hive around them, momentarily, grew still. Saotome watched this with satisfaction, pulling the tentacles out of his chest with an unfeeling grunt before plunging his hands into the mass of ichor now oozing from the hive. He was soon joined by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who similarly drove their fingertips into its surface.
"Good! Let them come!" Hissed the Doctor, with uncharacteristic malice.
Beneath their hands, the BETA began to beat anew. A quickened, lively pulse that went in time with their own heartbeats, as their genes melded with that of the control structure. A mad grin was shared between all three. The ecstasy of evolution!
"All will join us in wondrous evolution... Haha, hahahaha!"
That terrible, raucous laughter of the trio seeemed to echo all through the halls of the Hive, and shake the very bones of the planet itself...