Chapter 616 (1/2)

Book 6, Chapter 8 Father

Cloudhaas led into a huge, empty audience hall As he entered, the door shut behind him No mark or seem was left to show there had been a door there at all

The interior was a singular, unblemished whole The walls were sh the room ell lit there was no obvious source for it This had to be the audience chamber for the one they called 'Father' In his time Cloudhawk had dealt with all sorts of people, but never a strange intelligence like this He was as confused as he was curious

“I' into the center of the roo?”

“You should not be here”

It was the voice of the one the proto-huence that kept this place running A relic froh synthetic, spoke naturally and in a manner easy for Cloudhawk to understand There was no mechanical coldness to it, instead he sounded like any ed man from his oorld

If he had not been told of 'Father's' real identity, Cloudhaould have assu soh a speaker But indeed he felt nothing Cloudhawk's superhus and those mysterious entities like Gods and deram, and thus impervious to Cloudhawk's senses

“Where are you?”

“I am everywhere, and nowhere The Ark itself is my body”

“The Ark? You mean this nest? Why aren't I welco to harm you”

Father's deep, steady voice answered It caes of humanity New hue According to reat deal of danger and potential for destruction Thus, your presence goes against my core directive The Ark does not welcome you New Earth does not welcome you We request that you and all of your people vacate this planet immediately”

There was a note of hostility in the nized the truth, that he was indeed a harbinger of chaos Of all the places he'd traveled, feere left unscathed by this curse he bore

But this place could be different It was a completely different world Skycloud, the wasteland, Gods, demons… they weren't likely to show up here

Cloudhawk had neither the capabilities nor the interest to settle this planet en masse Green Alliance had spent the ti base After all of that, did Father expect hiive up and leave?

The war between Skycloud and the Green Alliance drew nearer every day What they'd built here was too important to abandon!

Cloudhawk's time was precious Months of time and effort couldn't just be throay, that would ht mean increased losses, maybe irrecoverable losses He wasn't the man he used to be, and as the Green Alliance's leader he had to consider everyto put theer because an electronic brain asked him to

“New huinal people have been separate for a thousand years, but we're still fundaued “We are all continuations of that ancient culture Why can't we join hands and develop together? My Green Alliance had once nearly been lost, but noork toward a brighter future”

“New humans have no future” Father's voice wasno room for doubt Its frank claim dampened Cloudhawk's enthusiasm “Your existence is merely an experiment: You are test subjects, and speci ta here you bring that scrutiny towards us To the Ark, attention is a fatal circumstance”

“What are you saying? Test subjects?”

“You still do not understand? Your world, like this and all the others, is doomed to absolute destruction Your destiny is to vanish from a dead and barren landscape There is no hope Resistance is futile It is an end you cannot escape”

“You know so, don't you? Like what destroyed this world”

“I have erased this data froerous It is knowledge that leads its knowers to ruin” Father continued “You should not have come here, so I ask that you are your people return to your world”

“I don't care what's going on behind the scenes But if you're telling me not to even try and resist then I can't accept that” Cloudhawk shook his head “No h”

“Hunorance You do not understand the power you stand against Continuing to fight achieves nothing You are like a ale Contained in my databanks are the histories of countless worlds who tried to fight, only to all end in complete extermination You and your people tread the same path”

A deep sentier and refusal rose up in Cloudhawk Whether or not he was doo machine!

Somehow Father read the hostility in Cloudhawk's stance Activating soed from the walls They quickly rolled toward Cloudhawk and surrounded him

When they reached their prescribed destination the orbs fractured They unfurled to reveal ars, heads and tails They pointed pairs of sophisticated weapons at the new huerous looking tails behind them Their construction was far more delicate and lethal than the machines on the surface

Cloudhawk scowled “You're threatening s?”