Chapter 66: Chapter 65 – Omega

Astropaths were constantly opening up in the old system of the Humans. When first arriving, the scanners, showing the fabled, blue planet, awed the Neo-Hegemony's people just as Roxo's or Junita's. Even more, there were tons of stations still orbiting around planets, laying dormant on the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. When Parthen's group descended onto Titan, they found the unlocked base, with hundreds of Suits ready to be piloted. It only took a few hours to set up their defenses, and Dawn was downloading herself into as many defensive platforms as possible.

"Time's up…" Omega said, his voice echoing aboard every ship.

He was floating outside, in the cold space between planets, watching a point close to the edge of the Solar System. Soon a huge mouth of an Astropath opened up, and the colossal, white ship flew out of it like a whale emerging from the ocean. It was moving faster than anything their ships could do. It crossed huge distances in a blink, heading straight for Omega and the fleet between Earth and Mars.

"Not so fast…." Omega said, raising a hand, affecting the strings making up the whole Solar System.

It immediately slowed and then halted the advancement of the ship, surprising the Creator itself. In reality, the Creator and the ship itself were one being. It was an amalgamation of many consciousnesses, biological and AI, fused together. Once, they may have been a different species or entities, but as it walked down the path of solving the same equation that Omega was working at, it became increasingly twisted.

Somewhere in the past, it fused itself fit AI, and from then on, it consumed or, as it would say, improved itself, absorbing many other things. Being it living or not. By the time humanity stood up, walking on two legs, it was already searching for a way to ascend above anything that would be tied down by the laws of the universe. In this Galaxy, it already had complete control over everything until this point.

"..." It had many questions, but none of it could be formed into words.

His complete connection to the strings around it was obstructed. His 'eyes' were seeing them; it could perceive that the human floating in space was manipulating them, cutting him off from accessing them.

"You think this will stop me?" The Creator asked as the huge ship started to morph, and just like wasps from a hive, hundreds if not thousands of drop-like shops swarmed out.

"No. But I will." Omega replied, his eyes turning toward the smaller ships.

He couldn't deal with them all at once. He was constantly fighting with the consciousness of the Creator, holding him back from turning anybody into dust or tearing apart their ships with a thought. Many of its new 'creations' flew past Omega, and a chaotic, bloody battle bloomed behind him. Many of the ships exploded after the two fleets clashed. Their weapons were direct, using their own bodies, ramming against the bigger ships, tearing through them. They used the most basic and barbaric method if they couldn't influence them. The Suits of Ares showed the usefulness at that moment once again. They were capable of maneuvering, flying next to or onto the 'ships', and from that close, they did not miss, easily disabling or destroying them before they could blast through their allies.

"It is not enough." The Creator said, upping his attempts, and instead of going for the strings of Omega and his allies, his consciousness focused on the asteroid belt.

As Omega could not afford to protect everything to the same level, so the Creator easily took control of many asteroids, hurling them towards the ships, destroying his own part with the others in tow.

"We need to act!" Jankho said as one of the commanding ships of the Wuulfharn was blasted apart by a huge asteroid.

"Agreed! Let's go on the offense!" Roxo said, and soon, dozens, mostly the strongest battleships they had, headed towards the Creator.

Even if their weapons did not do immediate damage to its massive hull, Omega still felt their effect. The Creator now had to either try and divide its attention between manipulating the many floating rocks or defending its body against direct attacks. Things he was not used to.

"Surprised? Good…” Omega nodded, taking to action. He flashed forward, and the next moment, he was inside the huge, white ship. The only thing he needed was the sudden lapse in the Creator's attention.

His memories of when he was a brainwashed drone living on the ship now resurfaced, clearer than ever. He quickly made his way through the identical-looking corridors knowing exactly where he was heading. It was an empty chamber, big enough that it could house a current battleship of the Neo-Hegemony. Stepping into it, in the middle, floated a crystal-like object. It was glowing with different hues every time, slowly spinning, rotating in place.

Just by the fact that Omega arrived close, he felt his own strings vibrating, trying to be ripped to shreds, destroying him for good. By now, the Creator was mostly concentrating on his presence, trying to eliminate him from reality, recognizing him as a threat. On the outside, the joined fleet was slowly relieved as the swarm of enemy ships became sluggish, missing their targets. The more it focused on Omega, the less aware it became of its surroundings.

"You are not even a living thing anymore," Omega said, fighting back its influence, flying forward ever so slowly. He was doing more than the Creator as he was already forming new strings around himself, using those to move around, ignoring his attempts to destroy him.

"Even if you are here, you can't do anything to me. Just the same." The Creator said in the end.

He was right. Omega tried to touch the very being of it, its essence but was rejected. The same way he did with the Creator's attempt. They arrived at an impasse; neither could do anything to the other. Whoever of them would lose focus would be the winner, but it may go on for who knows how long.

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"What now, human…?" The Creator asked, "Are we to stare at each other for the heat death of the Universe?"

"No. Just until you die." Omega answered, wearing a small smile since he laid his eyes upon him.

"Your bravado is meaningless."

"No. It is not." He shook his head, letting out a satisfied smile, closing his eyes, alerting the Creator as he felt all of Omega's defenses open up. "Unlike you, I am not afraid of death."

The moment he let his guard down, the Creator only hesitated for a brief moment. He went for Omega's strings, 'grabbing' at them, trying to tear him to shreds. On the other hand, Omega waited for his predictable action. He let the Creator touch him just so he could start fusing with it. It was an instant action, and by the time his body turned to ashes, his consciousness was invading his.

"What?!" It shuddered, but no more thoughts could be spoken out, trying desperately to stop Omega. Yet it was too late. He was like a virus, fusing with the Creator and rewriting all of its strings, replacing them with its own.

In the outside world, everything stopped. They knew something had to happen that all the 'drones' were twisting and turning before disintegrating into nothing but dust.

"What is going on?" Sylen asked, his communicator connecting to the Dawn and to Mirian's suit.

"I don't know." They answered, but then Omega's voice echoed out in every ship's intercom.

"I'm already in the process of taking over the ship. He is trying to fight back, but my mind is rewriting it. It is getting… increasingly hard to maintain my consciousness. His knowledge and amount of memories are… overwhelming. It was more ancient than I believed."

"What are you… saying?" Sylen asked, gulping loudly.

"I can't keep that promise. Sorry." He answered, and his voice was calm, and they could feel him smiling.

"You!" Sylen flared up, feeling her chest tightening. She really liked him and wanted him to find a new purpose in this new world. But she also knew that since recovering his memories, he was hiding the pain he truly felt and hiding the fact he wanted nothing more than rejoin his lost family. Even being his friend, she could not help with that.

"I'm transmitting useful data to Dawn so you can understand what went wrong. Maybe find some things that help the Galaxy as a whole." Omega continued. "I'll make sure that this threat will be gone."

"Alpha…" Sylen said in the end, taking deep breaths.

"Yes…?" He answered, his voice tired yet happy.

"I… We won't forget you."

"That is enough." He replied as the connection was cut.

What everybody saw happening was the huge, white ship soon starting to crumble. It looked like a ball of paper being squeezed by an invisible hand, growing smaller and smaller, slowly disintegrating into nothing. Inside, Omega was already without anybody, his remaining stringy all falling apart one by one until a few remained. He was content, knowing there won't be a similar case to what Humanity suffered. There won't be an alien form that would simply deem a species too dangerous and wipe them out with a thought just because they crossed paths with it. In a sense, the Galaxy and its inhabitants would be free. As he was thinking about it, he suddenly heard a voice calling out to him.

"Alfy…" It was a distant voice, but then it was repeated again by another, happy, bell-like laughter. He knew those voices… and he was happy to hear them one more time as his last strands finally disappeared, leaving behind nothing, just a free Galaxy and an old Blue Planet, reconnected with its rightful descendants.