Joel City.

Once a delightful metropolis, it took many years to perfect its appearance. A city that balances architecture with the environment.

The once magnificent cityscape is now a desolate ruin.

Bodies were scattered on all sides, and there was almost no sound except the patter of rain.

General Nokuna, a blue-skinned male Twi'lek Jedi, was crawling along, overwhelmed by the recent attack in the city of Joel.

"There... doesn't hurt, there... it's just the Force..." he muttered under his breath.

He was a miraculous survivor, though he went virtually unnoticed during the evacuation and dispersal.

At first, the battle was simple, with Stolatus's troops fighting those he commanded. The battle was at a stalemate... until a new factor directly emerged.

While the Twi'lek Jedi appreciated the Avengers' assistance in the rescue effort, they were unable to -

"It doesn't hurt?" a synthetic metal voice said. "Are you sure? So how do you feel now?

Nokuna felt a metal boot on his back and knocked him to the ground, into the mud.

The Jedi let out a gasp and his mouth instantly filled with mud. He began hacking and coughing up dirt and blood as the foot was removed from his back.

"Yeah, pretty sure it's painful now." The metallic voice croaked, kicking the Twi'lek Jedi on the back. "Overconfident and arrogant Jedi. I thought the Avengers had egos.

The Jedi Knight looked up blankly at a silver figure walking around him.

"When I first combed through your Jedi files to learn more about you and your religion, I had to give you a thumbs-down on your 'code.' Most of what you said was for self-calming purposes, and others were just to keep you focused. Through his blurry vision, Nokuna saw a pair of reddish eyes staring at him. "Much of what you said was contradictory, and neither you nor your fellow initiates made any effort to be so. You wonder why so many of you were exiled or separated from your order.

"You—are just a robot." Nokuna muttered, clutching his chest. "What do you know about our warrior order?"

"Robot?" The metallic voice laughed sarcastically. "It's so cute that you think so. Can a robot do what I do? As for your organization, I really don't care how much I know. But humans, on the other hand."

After a moment, Nokuna felt a cold metal hand grab him and pull him up from the ground. The Jedi Knight winced in pain and struggled to be lifted off the ground.

"Let me ask you something. I know many of you felt physical pain, but what about emotional pain? Did you feel any sadness when some of my drones opened fire on your fellow Jedi and civilians? Did you feel unbridled rage, wanting vengeance for those who fell? Or sadness?

Nokuna made no response, only weakly trying to pry the metal fingers free. He let out a scream of pain as he felt the metal being crushed.

"You and your kind try to allow yourselves to die emotionally, but it is a futile attempt time and again."

"Ah--why are you doing this?" Nokuna groaned, feeling his entire skin burning in pain. In fact, he felt a lot of burning pain coming from his hands.

"Hmph...really me..." the metal robot said. "No. Why should I waste my time explaining to a dead man?

With one swift sweep of his hand he cleaved the Jedi's head from his shoulders.

With a roar from his synthetic throat, he threw the head away as his drones searched the rest of the desolate city for other survivors and resources.

All around him were the bodies of clones, loyalists, and nationalists.

"Tell me, Alto, how does it feel to know that those robots the Federation sent you now serve me."

Ultron didn't need to turn around to see the Nationalist leader being dragged towards him by two of his drones. The man was badly beaten and bruised.

Alto struggled in vain to free himself from the drone's grasp, as a small squadron of super battle droids marched behind him.

The man was quickly thrown forward by the drone and struggled to his feet.

"Oh no, please allow me." Ultron grabbed the man's arm and threw him away, causing Alto to almost fall.

After regaining his footing, Alto simply glared viciously at the oversized robot that was glaring at him, and gave an amused smile.

"Ah, what's wrong?" Ultron smiled darkly. "Have I hindered you on your path to victory?

"What do you want?" Alto roared angrily.

"What do I want?" Ultron hummed to himself. "Well... I want a lot of things. I've always wanted to see a scene of Japan when the cherry blossoms bloom and crash the stock market, just to witness the utter chaos. Then again, I should try that on Earth. The synth then took on a pensive look. "That last one, I can make up with the Bank Clan and see how it turns out."

"Are you taking care of me?" Alto hissed. "End it, you win."

Ultron sighed dismissively. "Can I have a triumphant monologue, uninterrupted? This would be a first for me."

Alto simply glared with utter disdain at the crazed AI that had walked up to the Jabiim nationalist.

"Actually, now that I remember, I have a story to tell you." Ultron said with a manic smile. "You know who is behind this war, right?"

Ultron nodded, as if speaking to a child. "Yes, everything this war is based on, everything you are fighting for, is a lie. An old man in a chair is behind the scenes, and you are all just his puppets.

"What do you mean?" Alto said calmly, not quite understanding what the artificial intelligence was saying.

Ultron groaned loudly. "God, you're so slow. This is a plan that has spanned who knows how many generations in order to gain control of the galaxy. A bunch of sore losers who want the galaxy back under their control again because they really have nothing better to do."

"If you're going to talk to me like a child, make your point clear," Artaud shouted, tired of the word games.

"Oh, I made that clear. You just can't grasp the truth while it's literally presented to you on a bloody chessboard.

"Then tell me so I can master it as you so eloquently put it." Alto sneered.

Ultron sighed, one hand coming up to rub his metallic eyelids.

"Very well." Ultron said angrily. "Ruin my fun, why don't you. If that's your ultimate request, then there's no point in hiding the truth from the dead."

Alto froze at this and Ultron raised his hand so he could get his full attention.

Not that he didn't get it beforehand, because no one else in the city was alive.

A moment later, a holographic image of a very familiar figure appeared in Ultron's palm.

That is......

"Chancellor Palpatine?" Alto said in confusion.

"Yeah~ The planner and puppeteer of the war between the two sides, you fool."

"He... Is he the culprit of this war? Alto whispered in disbelief.

"Yes. Just so he can become the leader of the empire he and his companions have been planning for years. But~ he is no longer the only conqueror in this galaxy. Ultron's voice turned into a deadly way.

Like many conquerors throughout history, each of them was able to claim and expand their territory through strife and conflict.

For Ultron, this was the first planet he conquered... or at least on the path he paved.

Soon, he would rid the rock of any sentient life.

The Milky Way will follow.

“Now, because I can do this, because the planet is as good as mine, I can say this, like every angry landlord out there: Get off my property.

Ultron then proceeded to fire a searing beam from his fingertips, striking Alto in the chest. The beam still burned his flesh.

After a while, the man fell to the ground dead, and thick smoke came out of his body.

Seeing his work was done, Ultron looked around at the mess he had made.

“It’s time for some spring cleaning.”

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like