An Army of One

[helmetisntdumb]

ANNIHILATION DAY, PLUS 11
VERGE SYSTEM 001 THE RUINS OF THE XANDARIAN CLUSTER
THE FORMER HOME PLANET TO THE NOVA CORPS
THE ORIENTA SHARD

||Attention. It is critical that you pay attention.||

||There is no one left alive except you||You have sustained physical injury. It is also likely that you are psychologically disoriented by shock

Comments

[helmetisntdumb]

||I recommend exit trajectory 452--what are you doing?||

[helmetisntdumb]

He can feel it burning under his skin. Even with the suit, even with it clamped down, he can feel it.

Look at 'em. Millions of 'em. Don't you just wanna stop and dish some out?

Flying at break-neck speed away from the Orienta Shard, he sees them all spread out before him, and it's like he's just joined the New Warriors again, big mouth, but this time he has the muscle to back it up. This time, he really does have that kinda power.

[helmetisntdumb]

||No. That would not be appropriate at this time.||

[helmetisntdumb]

Yes, dad.

All this time, he's wanted to be somebody, and now he is.

'At this time,' 'at this time'--what better time is there?

[helmetisntdumb]

||Richard. Concentrate on your breathing. Elevated stress and aggression can impair your ability to manage the burden of the Nova Force.||

[helmetisntdumb]

He doesn't hear it. Well, it's more like he doesn't want to hear it.

Burden? It feels like I've got a star singing inside me. I could do anything.

All this time, he's wanted to be something. Now, he's everything.

[helmetisntdumb]

||Attention, Richard. It is critical that you--||

[helmetisntdumb]

I could do anything, and nothing could stop me!

All he feels now is rage, and the power fuels it, the rage makes him lose control, fuels the power. It's an unbroken circle, and he follows through and does what feels natural.

He blasts through the nearest bug ship, destroying it and killing every sentient inside.

"Could you, you bugs? Could you?" he screams into the void, and blasts through another ship, leaving a plume of fire in his wake. "Not like the last time! Not like when you took us apart!"

There's another ship, and another. There's destruction. Death by the thousands.

It's his right to bring death to them after they've killed so many. It's justice.

"HOW DOES IT FEEL NOW, YOU FUCKERS? HOW DOES IT FEEL?"

[helmetisntdumb]

||Initiating adrenal inhibitors. Initiating neural pacifiers.||

[helmetisntdumb]

It's not enough. He hears that nagging voice, like his father's, and its instinct to go against it.

He flies, gathering up speed, energy swirling in a vortex around him, he builds up speed and momentum.

He's going to kill them all. Every last one of them.

[helmetisntdumb]

||Attention! Nova, listen to me. Listen! Break off!||

"Shut up."

||Richard.||

No response.

||Richard, you are losing control of the Nova Force. I can't help you contain it if you don't calm down. Attention! Att--||

[helmetisntdumb]

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! THEY'VE GOT TO PAY!"

So many dead. So many dead and he couldn't stop it. So many dead and he was useless, like he's always been useless, and they all died in pain, they all died horribly, they--

"THEY'VE GOT TO PAY!"

There'd be a crunch, if there was sound in the void, as he rockets through the hull of the largest of the ships, right into the core of it, and then the energy explodes outward. The ship tears apart and shreds around him, a good chunk of it vaporizing in the blast.

For just a moment, there's another star in the Verge System, and its birth heralds the death of many of the last living things left in it.