The streets of the city of Casdrine were filled with members of The Fulkore Collective that were scanning them in grids looking for people who had not been assimilated into the collective.
It had been only three years since The Fulkore Collective was first spotted in the galaxy. They were once an attempt to prolong the lifespan of the citizens of The Ancient Osdronian Dynasty. Their attempt to prolong their lives were done to keep the peace that was on the verge of collapse. This worked until The Ancient Cyborg Slavery Bureaucracy hacked the psionic network that the Fulkore Collective used to communicate. When the network was hacked the Osdronian personalities were wiped clean and The Fulkore Collective was born.
They were deactivated and stored in a few of the settlements of The Ancient Osdronian Dynasty after they revolted against their creators. The entire collective was dormant for over five hundred years until a few years ago they were reawakened by a Terran professor named Adam Fulkore. That is how they got their name.
After the first year of their return to the war-torn galaxy, they started to assimilate all the species and planets until they had achieved their goal of total unification through assimilation.
Casdrine was the only planet of the galaxy that had not yet been totally assimilated. The reason was because there were a resistance group of Vordonians and some cross breeds of them and Terran.
One of the cross bred females was running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop and avoiding all the scanning drones that were floating around scanning the upper floors of the buildings for targets to be assimilated.
The female Half-Vordonian was wearing a set of skin tight black body armor that had a set of five small blue button that were on the inside of her wrist. She pressed the first button and starting at the base of her shoes she starting to vanish until her entire body had become invisible to the naked eye.
As she made to the target structure of her mission she climbed down to the ground level by sliding down a ladder.
There three patrols of hybrid soldiers that were a biological lifeform that was enhanced with cyborg augmentations to make them connected to The Fulkore Collective and to also enhance the speed and strength of their formerly entirely organic bodies.
"Search the area for people that have not been assimilated, and remember that you we are not here to kill those that resist us. We are not are cruel as the citizens of the former Ancient Cyborg Slavery Bureaucracy. Extermination is the last choice that we use not the first." A fully robotic member of The Fulkore Collective said as an order to the ones that were cybernetic.
They started to scatter and search the streets and the Half-Vordonian walked through the streets maintaining full functionality of her stealth suit.
As she slipped through the first grid of observers they stopped as if they could sense that something was amiss around them.
"I thought that I sensed something around us. Activate the three-layered scan to search for the source of the disturbance." the augmented one that was in the front of the group heading towards the same side of the building that the Half-Vordonian was formally located said.
Then they started to scan the area around them in a full three hundred and sixty degrees rotation going clockwise. They did not notice anything and stopped moving for a few seconds to shut off their scanners.
"There is not a single lifeform here. You must have few of your circuits loose." Another of the augmented humanoids said as she hit the person who had told them to activate their scanners on the head with her auto rifle.
The Half-Vordonian used this as a distraction so that they could get into the target structure of their mission.
This building was a central data hub on this world. It was through here that The Fulkore Collective kept all their data on the different things that they had obtained through assimilation of the other races as part of their collective.
Inside the building the Half-Vordonian saw that the walls were painted a dark sea blue color. The floor was made of metal circuit plates that had energy running through them to collect energy as people stepped on them.
The Half-Vordonian deactivated the stealth mode of her skintight armor. After that she made her way to the end of the entrance hallway and noticed that there was a sign up on the wall that had all the different areas of the building and where they were located.
She looked at the wall until she found what it was that she had been sent to find. Then she sneaked to the hallway to her left and went up the stairs until she had reached the third floor.
This floor had a lot more security to it then the first floor which meant that she had made it to the correct floor. This is where the informant that had given her the intel said that the main information terminal was located.
"Have you heard that there are some people who have injected themselves with a nano bug that consumed all the mechanical parts that we use to assimilate organic based life forms." A member of the Fulkore collective said as the Half-Vordonian snuck her way into a closet that was about thirty feet in front of them while their attention was geared towards each other because of their conversation.
"As if that sounds illogical. There is no longer a way to fight our assimilation process. It has not been possible for anyone to resist the bots that we put in our subjects ever since we successfully assimilated the advanced black nanites that The Ancient Cyborg Slavery Bureaucracy." The second trooper said to the first one that spoke as they walked past the closet where she was hiding.
Then she reactivated the stealth mode of her armor and slipped past the two guards and went to the very end of the hallway where there was only a single door in between the female Half-Vordonian and her objective.
When she approached the target door, she noticed that she had to hack a terminal to open the door. She looked at the terminal that was in-between her and her target and she noticed that it was a XF-2 third generation security terminal.
She is going to have to take out someone that has been assimilated so that she could scan their palm and get to the other side.
Then she made her way back to where the two guards that she just passed were patrolling the floor.
She snuck her way to the last location where she had seen the two guards of The Fulkore Collective.
"Have you heard the news? There is only one more resistance cell on this world, and once they have either been assimilated or destroyed our leader says that we will be moving on to the Shroud to kill the remaining so that we can ensure that our assimilation is permanent." One of the augmented solders said as she made her way to a side room that was to her left since she noticed that the stealth mode of her suit of armor was about to cancel itself due to overheating.
"Did you hear that?" one of the guards asked the other one as she opened the door to her hiding place.
They both walked over to it and as the guard that thought it had noticed something. The second guard placed his right hand on the right shoulder of the other one.
"You must have a few circuits that are loose. When we have a shift exchange you should probably go and get a tune up and an oiling."
"You are probably right. I have not had an oiling or my circuits tightened in over three months."
Then they left and split as the made it to the end of the current hallway.
"You are an illogical machine if you do not take care of yourself when needed."
Both guards split off and went down separate hallways in unison like a well-oiled machine.
Since she knew that she was alone she started to sneak in the hallway, but she needed to be careful because her stealth mode was still recharging.
The solider of the Fulkore collective was about ten feet away from her and there was not anything more for her to use to hide behind to remain unseen. She then looked at her wrist where the small button to reactivate her suit's stealth mode was located and it was still charging. This meant that she had use her trump card if she was to remain undetected.
Then she waved both of her hands in semi circles starting at the top of her head until they made contact in front of her stomach. After that she slowly pulled that apart until they were on the side of her body.
"Phase Step Gate" she whispered and a portal made of blue energy that had a light pink color glowing around the edge showed up in front of her.
On the other side of this portal, she saw her target. It had not noticed the portal that she made behind it.
Then she activated her hidden that were on the wrists of her armor and they had an electric charge running through them. As she did this, she did this she stepped through the portal and sliced off its head with a single clean strike.
The rest of the body started to fall but she recanted her portal before it could hit the floor and quickly jumped in to catch it before it hit the floor.
As she caught it, she was it front of the security system and placed one of the solder's hands on it and the door opened.
After this she tossed the dead guard back into the portal to ensure that they would have more trouble finding the area of the building where she was located.
She knew that she did not have a lot of time getting the information that was after because The Fulkore Collective was very fast in responding to threats that arose against them.
This had not always been the case. When they first tried to assimilate all the life in the galaxy they had failed, but after they had successfully assimilated The Ancient Cyborg Slavery Bureaucracy something changed, they were more efficient at capturing people to assimilate.
The room was a single large computer with three different screens. The left showed current troop placements thought the world. The second one had sets of files that ranged from target systems to all known resistance locations.
At first, she could not see what it was that she was after, but as she was about to give up and leave to the limited time that she knew that she had left she noticed a folder titled species history.
Then she touched it with her right hand. Then as she did a large list of the different races that they had successfully assimilated all that they could form them. They were listed in alphabetic order so she looked through the list until she stopped at the race was looking for.
The files were on The Ancient Osdronian Dynasty. Barely anything was publicly known about this race, but since The Fulkore were the children of this ancient race in a sense they might have the information.
She touched the screen again and she searched for the exact subject that she was looking, but as she was looking the alarms in the building started to go off.
This meant that she had to be faster so she placed a white transfer chip into the computer and a small logo showed up on the screen of a Vordonian head she dragged the file titled extinction onto it and it immediately transferred to the new logo.
After this she grabbed the transfer chip and she activated herself portal out of the building just like she had just done, but this time nothing happened. This could only mean one thing when she used it the last time she had reached her daily limit.
She was only able to use her talent three times in a single day. That second one must have cost so much energy that it used two charges at once. This just meant that she would have to get out the same way that she got into the building.
"Search the entire building for this intruder. They will only have two options to either be assimilated or exterminated." A female warrior of The Fulkore Collective that was entirely robotic said as the troops under her command began to fan out and search the building.
As the Half-Vordonian saw that one of the patrols was about to enter the room she was in with a single glance at her suit she could tell that her stealth mode was almost ready to be reactivated. This that all she had to do was stay alive long enough to get out into the buy streets outside and she would be able to vanish into the night.
She reactivated her hidden blades and waiting from behind a column in the room waiting for them to get close enough for her to strike at them in quick succession.
Every second that passed it seemed to last an eternity. Her heart kept throbbing faster as they got closer because if she were to fail at this mission all the efforts of her people to resist would have been for nothing.
When they all entered the room, she lunged at two of them targeting at their cores in the chest that glowed blue since these new models were powered with Paradisus.
They exploded and the other three in this group immediately closed their chest openings so that she could use the same trick on them twice.
That was one of the things that she hated the most about The Fulkore. Now that they had assimilated The Ancient Cyborg Slavery Bureaucracy they had a much faster adaptably time. this meant that if they noticed what was done to kill one of them that you would have to use a different tactic to take out the next one.
Then she swept the legs of the next two and as they were falling, she severed their heads.
As soon she the last one hardened the metal on its neck, but she lunged at its shoulder joints and severed its arms. Then she stabbed out its eyes and made sure that she got out its neuro chip that controlled the rest of its body.
Then she activated the stealth mode of her armor and knew that this mission was now complete as she walked out of the building.
She made it out hoping that this mission had given the resistance the one thing that they needed to change things dramatically because if they did not change things soon the state of life would be beyond the point of no return.