ORIGIN

Last Laugh

Back in Plumorita, Origin Project had launched an underground recruiting campaign. It was running on a galactic scale and it was all organized. Everybody involved had to communicate only in code because, in some places, discretion meant life or death. But there were thousands of people wanting to be operatives. Many people on many planets learned a lot about the truth, and they were simply disillusioned by the influences of Alpha Maximus, the so-called Supreme Android.

On Celestia, everybody had to stop celebrating and quickly get back into war mode. Many of Origin Project's spies had reported that Alpha Maximus was beefing up the airspace security at every known harvest site.

Many spies and scouts were being commissioned and sent out all over Plumorita. The line of communication was dynamic and constant. More people from around Plumorita were being recruited, thoroughly interviewed, briefed, and trained. So since their numbers kept increasing, Origin Project mined more bangorium metal from the asteroid field and built a large mech suit factory on Celestia. Bangorium could encase plutonium and other radioactive elements for energy sources. It protected biological forms of life from radiation.

Max, Bio, and the remaining ghost agents decided that the next harvest site to attack would be the one on the small mountainous island of Solara. The harvest site was guarded by a small but wild outlaw band called the "Coyotes". The harvest site had about three giant factories that produced robots and supercapacitors. The Coyotes worked with armed robots disguised as huge Solarian birds the size of pterodactyls that scouted the outer boundaries of the island. Alpha Maximus had fleets of Brigade marauder ships tightly patrolling Solara's airspace. But after the attack on the Neon Jungle site, he multiplied the fleets two times over. Each fleet was under the supervision of a biozoid. The only thing landing on Solara was androids and robots from Earth.

On Celestia, they were making needed repairs to their mech suits. After an omni-chamber training program overseen by Oasis and Ato, everybody prepared to enter Colosso to strategize an attack on the harvest site. A network of spies, scouts, and double agents were all on standby. Ato and Oasis decided to stay merged for the entire mission. So did Bio and Ratch. Circuit would use the Omega helmet again.

Meanwhile, on Solara, several armed Coyote outlaws were positioned at their posts on patrolling stations built on the highest points of the island. The harvest site was located at the island's most central point. There were many other islands like this one on the northeastern seas of Solara. They were miles tall and shaped with jagged mountain formations. The Coyotes all wore masks with digital sights and air tubes that allowed them to breathe in high elevations. The robot birds swarmed around the island scanning the surrounding areas for any possible intrusions. One of the Coyote members was at his patrol station cleaning his weapon. Another one was slouched over in the zone from the virtual reality headset he had on. Most of the patrolmen had gotten bored with watching the mountains for marauder bands looking to hijack parts from the harvest site to sell on the black market. But they figured no one would try anything since Alpha Maximus' name became more feared on the planet.

Meanwhile, ten mech suits exited Colosso as it approached the outermost boundary of Solara's airspace in cloak mode. They were being led by Circuit, whose mech suit was paired with the Omega Weapon. They approached another ship which was filled with 150 androids from Earth. The cargo ship was headed to the harvest site to relieve the Coyotes since Alpha Maximus decided to replace them with androids. Just before the cargo ship approached a heavily secured area scouted by marauder squadrons, the mech suit pilots entered the ship through an entrance located on the back of the ship. The androids on the ship were in stasis mode so none of them sensed the breach. Circuit used the Omega weapon to instantaneously hack every android's protocol system, which only took a few seconds. Through the Omega Weapon, the androids were under a state of cyber hypnosis. Whatever Circuit commanded them to do through the helmet, they did. So nine more mech suits entered the cargo ship along with Circuit and Ratch with the hacked androids as it entered Solara's thick atmosphere. Everyone else stayed back on Colosso as backup. As soon as the cargo ship neared the island, packs of robot birds started to swarm around it, scanning the ship for anything unrecognized on board. Before any of them could get a complete scan, they were all blasted out of the sky by the androids. When the ship landed, the Coyotes were there waiting to be relieved by a biozoid.

Circuit had commanded the androids to split up into groups of ten that would each enter a compound and self-destruct. After that, Circuit and everybody else on the cargo ship were to blast off back towards Colosso and head back to Integrity. Everything went as planned smoothly. But what no one knew was that Alpha Maximus himself had been watching them through the eyes of the largest robot bird, which was perched on the peak of the island's highest mountain.

Just as sections of the harvest site started to explode, Alpha Maximus attempted to reprogram the androids to attack the cargo ship, but it was too late. The whole island started to collapse into the sea, forming a giant tsunami wave, that made its way towards a busy metropolis on a nearby peninsula. The giant wave grew bigger as it approached the city until it was high enough to swallow and knock aircraft out of the air. As the wave started to descend, it crushed skyscrapers as if they were made of sand.

Circuit and the rest of the mech suit pilots were headed back towards Colosso in the cargo ship, but they were quickly intercepted by a swarm of marauder ships. The marauder ships fired everything they had at the cargo ship until it was a ball of fire falling back toward Solara's atmosphere. But the mech suit pilots had already escaped in cloak mode. They dodged and weaved around countless laser blasts as they merged and returned fire. But soon, they became largely outnumbered, and biozoids were approaching in larger ships. Just when the mech suit pilots were too overwhelmed, Colosso appeared. Colosso was so large compared to every other ship that they all looked like flies. Colosso rained down a storm of target-seeking missiles on them until none remained. After that, everybody entered Colosso, as it entered cloak mode again and blasted off to Celestia.

After several months had passed, there were many successful attacks on Alpha Maximus' harvest sites until only a few hundred remained throughout every known territorial space district in Plumorita.

By that time, Origin Project had more operatives around the galaxy than the Star Brigade. But some governments on a few planets were being seized by Alpha Maximus and his many android and biozoid slaves. Alpha Maximus united and consolidated 65 % of all outlaw bands in the galaxy to work for him like when he monopolized and gained control over the robotics industry on Earth before the Robot War. His purpose was to consume the galaxy like a virus was being realized. He also had dominion over 90 percent of the e-verse.

Three and a half years down the line, Alpha Maximus' forces had grown to the point that several planets, including Chronesius, were at war with him like Earth was. But because of Origin Project's opposing forces and the equalizing Omega Weapon, most planets had a chance. Because the truth had spread, no one trusted the media and few people dove into the e-verse anymore. The Star Brigade was now a large and organized outlaw band with strong authority. There was no longer a middle ground. In this galactic war, either you worked for Alpha Maximus or Origin Project. Either you took orders from Alpha Maximus or you took them from Origin Project's new arch-commander - Oasis Helix.