Misdirected Call
 They were cruising through the darkness when they sensed it. A source of great power, more importantly different power, was nearby. They altered course to intercept it.
Its small size did not surprise them. Nothing could. They swept it on board for examination.
A soldier laid its eyes on the small, powerful object. It was a cube, like its own ship, metal- a new metal.. It glittered with gold decoration, which was ignored. A sample could not be obtained- the cube would not cut, would not score. The soldier turned the cube in its claws, manipulating it, trying to scan its depths. The energy seemed to respond to its touch, and the soldier followed the cube's lead in its attempt to discover more.
This worked, apparently, as the cube began to move of its own accord, sliding sections out and back, worked by some kind of mechanism. The soldier watched intently, knowing it must not miss a thing. The cube opened, and a set of hooked chains blossomed out of it, sinking into the soldier's flesh and gear. The Collective duly made a note to provide physical protection next time.
The ship's power levels began to fluctuate wildly, lights behaving in impossible ways. The ship registered an internal breach. Another soldier appeared to investigate the breach, and peered into the impossible misty blackness beyond it.
Four figures strode out of the mist, white like the soldier, clad in black like the soldier, pierced with their own trappings like the soldier. But still, obviously, Other. And Other meant new. ||and we must learn.|| The soldier met the intruders.
Xiphos looked at the soldier who held the Box, looked down on the creature that came to greet him. They had an aesthetic to them not unlike that of his own kind, and they appeared completely nonreactive to the chains or their presence. He was confused. 'You have summoned us?'
The soldier facing them did not speak, but a multitude of voices spoke for him. 'We are Borg. You manufactured this cube. You will be assimilated.'
'No. We are here to show you the full capacity of experience for the flesh.'
'The flesh is irrelevant. The flesh is a medium. You will be assimilated. Your skills will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.'
Xiphos blinked. The flesh is irrelevant? A worse blasphemy could hardly be spoken! And they thought they were in control. Surely these creatures were in denial. But then, they began to attack.
Soldiers poured from every hall, knocking aside the Chains with computed precision, ignoring any that landed. The four cenobites spread out in a defensive formation, their tools at hand. They caused the other hallways to close on themselves, crushing the soldiers who had not yet egressed. The soldiers already in the room advanced on the Cenobites, oblivious to the deaths of the others.
Cas met the first attacker with a flash of her blade, and it staggered back, spilling its viscera onto the floor. Xiphos dispatched another, and it fell against its fellows, disrupting their march slightly. 'Too easy,' he commented. 'You will leave us with no one to teach.'
Unicorn swung back to cleave into a third- and found his blade glancing off the air before it. He had no chance to try again, as the soldier reached out to him with its heavy metal arm, pulled him to it and disappeared in a green haze. The other three cenobites turned and stared with disbelief at the space he once occupied.
Xiphos rounded on the other soldiers with a burning stare. As one, they fell, cooking from the inside.
In the short silence, the Cenobites noticed the halls were rebuilding themselves, walls slowly growing apart and widening. Cas looked to her leader. 'We should acquire assistance. Our campaign is not prepared for this level of technology.'
Xiphos threw her a wounded look. 'We came for this thing,' he said, gesturing to the soldier with the box, who was still standing quietly at the back of them room. 'We shall show it the sweetest suffering.'
'And our brother?'
'He will return to us.'
'Will he?'
Xiph scowled a little. 'He will be called back with the rest of us, when we return home.' He crossed the room to the soldier, and took the box from its hands. The soldier did not respond, except to have its flesh torn by the hooks. Your hands called us, in the name of this whole vessel?'
'We seek new life and new technology. You will become one with the Borg.'
'Oh yes?'
At that, he called forth a whole volley of chains, wrapping the soldier and pinning it to the wall.
Xiphos walked up to the immobilized soldier and looked into its eyes. It returned his gaze with a glassy stare. He reached out to it, ran a hand over the soldier's skin and .. mechanics. He curled his fingers in the cables leading to its face and slowly pulled them out. The soldier's bloodless flesh bulged and ripped, the bulbous cable ends slipping out and dangling from his hand, slick with a clear fluid like glycerine. The soldier didn't struggle, didn't even move, did not cry out nor even give him a look of defiance. Just a calm, fact-absorbing stare, as black liquid began to drip from its wounds.
'These creatures... do not feel.' he said with terrible disappointment. A wave of pity hit him.
Elsewhere, Unicorn lay on a table, unraveled, reduced to clean flesh. He baffled the cube. ||thIs organIsm Is..human. It has been altered. Its chemIstry Is.. New to us. ..Hard memory read successfully. There Is an opportunIty for new experIence. NegotIatIon may reduce energy expendItures sIgnIfIcantly. Promote effIcIency. Note possIbIlIty: organIsm may be Insane, memorIes false. ConsIder. ||
|||What fun. Do it. |||
They stood waiting for a decision from their leader, who was casually twisting his hand in the guts of the soldier, hoping for some kind of reaction.
'They opened the box, they summoned us.. There was desire, we felt it in coming..'
Twist. Nothing. 'Yes...'
'But what can we bring back? If these sad creatures have no souls...'
'Oh they have souls.. But they are enslaved, and I..' he reached a point where the soldier ceased to function, and it slowly collapsed, to hang loosely from the wall. He sighed. 'I cannot reach them.'
The sound of approaching footsteps brought them to attention. One of the hallways was completely reconstructed. A troupe of Borg came into sight, led by a mutilated Unicorn.. They had removed his gear, clothing, everything, and remade him in their own style. His eyes spoke of nothing. They were empty. He spoke.
'I am Coradus of Borg. Your culture has access to hell. You will escort this vessel to hell, and facilitate your culture's surrender. You will become one with the Borg.'
Xiphos's mind baffled at these creatures, for their actions made no sense.. His brows knitted, and he regarded them with consternation. But if they all wanted to go to hell.. Why not...
'Very well. The way is open. Come in.'
The Borg found they suddenly knew what to do to breach the barrier, and the blackness of space was pencilled away, replaced by the light, steamy air of the Hellscape. Instantly there was new information. The Cube raced to collect it. A labyrinth stretched out below them, before them hovered Leviathan. The great shape dwarfed the ship in a sky that clearly belonged only to Leviathan. The cube tried to hail the thing they sensed was in control, and got no response.
Coradus and an entourage of soldiers beamed to the Labyrinth's surface, warm wind flowing across their pale bodies. The soldiers cast appraising eyes over the land as Coradus gazed up at the Lord of the Labyrinth, slowly turning in the red sky. 'Resistance is futile,' he said to Leviathan, as his soldiers cut down whatever creatures opposed them. 'You will comply.'
Coradus did not heed the approach of the black Light that streamed from the monstrous shape. This 'Lord of the Labyrinth' could not resist the Borg.
The light fell across him, burnt into his eyes, and suddenly he found the construct that was Coradus had burnt away, releasing the Cenobite buried within. And Leviathan spoke to him. Tell them, it said. So Unicorn told the Borg.. told them to awaken, and be free.
Xiphos, still on the ship, watched with the hint of an appreciative smile as he heard Leviathan's command. The soldiers standing before them, and those who lay dormant along the walls, all shuddered and blinked, and came awake. Some shook their heads as if to clear them. The wailing began almost immediately, the sound of thousands of voices. One of the soldiers nearby looked blankly at its hands, another tore at its own mechanics, urgently trying to prise them loose. Others remained standing, staring straight ahead, completely bereft of mind.
'Aaah, here we are at last,' Xiphos smiled, raising the chin of one to meet his eyes. The soldier's face remained blank. 'You have escaped, my little one,' he said, and threw forth a set of chains from the Box he held. They latched onto the soldier, and its face twisted. It made an animal sound of pain, never having learned how to scream. 'Welcome to hell.'
|
 The Other One Doesn't look very threatening.. he's cute.
Inspired, of course, by Hellraiser, designed & drawn by me. Please do not judge me by the wankiness of this fanfic. I am really not all that bad of a girl. I gave in once.. *once* to the urge to write a crossover.. OK, well, maybe four times if you count those other fiascos.. But only one of them's online, and I bet you'll never find it! NEVER!! What's that? Oh damn, it's on Deja News? Argh! I wrote that aged 13!! You cannot judge me by that!! Put away the rope! Aieeee!!!!
Cas Well, here's the Girl of my troupe.. |
