The new day dawned, but its light was obscured by an impossible shadow. A colossal, hand-shaped ship, so immense it blotted out the sun, cast a perfect solar eclipse over the planet. The land below was plunged into a perpetual, eerie twilight, a silent testament to the new power that had arrived.
The scene cut to a high-grade meeting hall, a room filled with alien leaders from different worlds. They were here to make deals and find ways to share and work together. A single light illuminated the center of the room, casting its glow on five leaders seated at a table.
Just beyond the light's reach, in a core of darkness, sat Taken. His weapons rested by his side, their metallic surfaces catching a faint purple glow from his mask. You could barely make him out, a silent and imposing figure.
The leaders began their negotiations. "I have 500 workers I can give with 500 units of ghaai," one leader announced, his voice booming with confidence. He gestured to a crystal on the table. "And 67 units of hlaa, a material known for its hardened connections."
Another leader's eyes gleamed. "That sounds great! We can use that to build bigger, stronger ships. Together, we can become the most powerful group in this quadrant." The leader then turned his gaze toward the shadows where Taken sat. "You there, in the darkness. You're the new leader of the Goti, aren't you?"
"Takers," Taken corrected, his voice a low, gravelly rumble that seemed to fill the room.
"Takers, I mean," the leader stammered. "Will you lend us your men?"
"No."
The word was simple, flat, and absolute. The leaders at the table exchanged glances, their earlier camaraderie replaced by confusion.
"Your resources, then?" the first leader pressed.
"No."
The leader slammed his fist on the table, the crystal rattling. "Then why are you here?" he roared, his voice thick with indignation.
Taken slowly lifted a finger, pointing directly at the alien leader. "I'm here to answer you on one thing," he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Free your men. Or else."
The leader's bravado returned instantly, fueled by rage. He stood up from the table, his chair scraping against the polished floor. "Or else? You dare speak out on my planet? Do you know who you're speaking to? Where you are? You have no say here!"
Taken's voice was the only sound in the tense silence that followed, his final words a chilling question. "Is that so?"
Taken rose from his seat, a 14-foot monolith of polished armor and dark intent. The other leaders stared, their bravado fading in the face of his immense presence. The leader stepped forward, his voice a desperate mix of fury and confusion.
"What are you doing? You're just going to leave? You have so much you can give us! Look at what we could become!"
Taken didn't stop. He walked past the table, his form casting an even larger shadow. "I already have what I need," he rumbled. "And now I'll take it."
No one moved to stop him. He walked through the open doorway, his towering frame dwarfing the other leaders as he disappeared from view.
He stepped out onto the highest tower. The chilly air of the eclipsed city washed over him. He stood at the edge, looking over the sprawling city, a silent king surveying his new domain.
Then, with a deafening whir, he was surrounded. Fifty armed guards emerged from the shadows, their weapons pointed directly at him. Six powerful jets, looking like overgrown drones, buzzed in the air above, their muzzles aimed and ready to fire.
The alien leader walked out, a smirk of triumph on his face. "What do you think you're doing?" he sneered. "You think you can just come on my planet and tell me what to do with my people? You may be big, but you're not big enough for all of us." He gestured to his army and the city below. "Coming here all by yourself… who do you think you are? What a night it is for you to die, looking over my city. Your men will fail without you, so don't think they'll get revenge for you."
Taken didn't reply. He simply stood there, quiet and unmovable.
The alien leader's smirk widened. "No last words, then? Nothing? Not even going to beg for your life?"
The armed guards stood ready, their guns aimed, waiting for a signal that never came. The silence stretched, heavy and tense.
Then, Taken's voice, a low and chilling whisper, cut through the night.
"Let it rain."
The aliens stood back for a second, their confusion evident. They then looked up, their eyes following Taken's gaze toward the sky.
All of a sudden, the dark, starless void above them was filled with purple stars. They appeared not in clusters, but in a vast, sprawling ocean that went as far as the eye could see. These stars were not silent. They streaked downward, a deluge of light and power. The purple rain was a storm of a million glowing figures—the Takers, descending from their ship, their armor illuminated by a radiant, internal light.
The aliens in the city looked up, their faces pale with a mix of awe and terror. The city's defense systems roared to life, but they were dismantled in no time by the overwhelming numbers of the Takers.
The Takers began their attack, landing on various parts of the city and immediately running, a relentless force of nature. They knocked out every civilian and killed any soldier that stood in their way. In the belly of the ship, countless mini-Takers sat in a command dome, watching every move with a special camera. They were giving orders, directing the Takers on the ground where to run, what to do, and where to move, every single step.
The Takers on the ground followed every order flawlessly. They were like ants working in groups, but they moved with the speed, skill, and power of a ballerina dancing on a string. They were a force of pure, coordinated destruction.
Then, the leader of the world started calling for his men, for backup. He called on all the soldiers they had and ordered them to be sent to Jem City, where they were located.
With zero sound, Taken moved. With one single swing, he cut down the surrounding aliens who were pointing their firearms at him.
"Look at what you have done," Taken's voice boomed, his words echoing across the city. "If only you had accepted my offer, your planet would be fine. All of your men would not have been hurt. Yet look at where we are. You leaders are so selfish. It didn't matter what planet we went to; it was all the same. The weak get used, and the strong control. I won't allow this any longer."
The Jemmer leader, standing back in disbelief, retorted with a shaky voice. "We Jemmer look after our entire race! You do not know us! We all do a job!"
"Yet you all don't get paid equally," Taken replied, his voice full of chilling calmness. "Why is that? Don't bother to answer. Your planet, your race, will now be a part of us. I'll take your low-paying workers and show them a better life without you."
At that, the other leaders tried to make a run for it, jumping into their ships and flying away. But their escape was short-lived. The colossal, hand-shaped ship in the sky shot them all down, killing them instantly.
The Jemmer leader's eyes went wide with terror, and he turned to run. But Taken was already walking him down, moving at a calm, deliberate pace. He took out any alien who tried to get in his way with a single punch, their shots doing nothing to his armor.
"What a great leader you are," Taken's voice boomed, his words echoing across the city. "You all do your job, yet you're not defending your planet with your soldiers."
The Jemmer leader kept running, even throwing other Jemmer in front of Taken, including the small ones. But Taken didn't hurt the weak. He simply caught them, gently setting them aside and telling them to hide. Within seconds, before the Jemmer leader could hide himself, he ran into a group of Takers.
Taken gave them a command: "Take all their masks." He was now surrounded by them, with Taken behind him.
You could see the different aliens, all a variety of colors and sizes. "We are different in flesh but the same in armor and the same in heart," Taken said, his voice a low, chilling whisper. "This is what true equality looks like, not what you were speaking of. Soon, your race will be a part of us."
Then, with no mistake made, as the alien tried to run, the Takers cut him down. Every Taker took a different part of him, with only his head falling to Taken's feet.
"That's what everyone doing their job looks like," Taken said, a final, horrifying declaration of his new philosophy.
An alien jet roared to life, shooting and weaving between two towering buildings, firing a torrent of blasts at the Takers below. Inside one of the buildings, a single Taker moved with amazing skill, cutting down the soldiers and knocking out every other alien civilian with such speed that they all fell to the ground at once. The Taker then landed among the fallen aliens.
Boom! A torrent of bullets tore through the room from above, but they missed all the aliens and the Taker. The alien pilot in the jet, trying to see his targets, activated his heat vision. His eyes went wide in disbelief: the buildings were filled with Takers running through every room, a countless army of them.
Before the pilot could react, the Takers leaped out between the buildings with incredible speed. It looked like they were flying, a blur of motion and purple light. The jet, like a bird flying through two firing squads, was hit with pinpoint precision. One by one, the Takers, like bullets, methodically cut the jet apart and leaped to the other side of the building. They were so fast that they made sure not a single piece of the jet landed on the aliens outside.
Within seconds, the alien pilot was left naked in the sky, no jet in sight. He plummeted to the ground, landing on his feet, but before he could run, a heavy piece of his jet hit him in the head, killing him instantly.
The backup force finally arrived in huge numbers, their ships a swarm of black against the dark sky. They flew through the air, firing with no care, completely indiscriminately. Jem City was lit up by the green blazers, every building and every street illuminated by the endless barrage of plasma. The ships fired for a full ten minutes until their guns overheated and shut down.
The jets sat in the sky, silent, as the pilots looked down, waiting for the dust to settle. They activated their heat vision to see if they had gotten all the Takers, and their eyes went wide in shock.
The Takers were all still standing, their hands behind their backs. Their armor and bodies were injured, but they were the only ones. Not a single Jemmer in the city was hurt because the Takers had covered them all with their own bodies.
The Takers didn't move, and the pilots thought they were dead, their heat just residual from the fighting.
Then, a Jemmer alien behind a Taker tried to get up. Without turning around, the Taker reached back and pointed with a single finger, telling the alien to stay down.
A voice cut through the comms. It was Mike, asking the Takers in the ship, "Is that all of them?"
"Yes," came the reply.
"Bring the house down," Mike commanded.
In a flash, BOOM! All the jets were shot down by the Hand Ship, lighting up the sky with a brilliant fireworks display of exploding ships. As the pieces of the jets rained down, the Takers covered the aliens, shielding them from the debris.
A voice cut through to Taken on his comms. "We took care of all of them."
"Rainbow," Taken said, the single word a command that echoed to every Taker on the planet.
In unison, millions of weapons dropped. The clatter of metal on concrete was a deafening sound as a hundred thousand guns fell to the ground. Then came a wave of cheers.
"YEAAAHHH! WE DID IT!"
The Takers took off their masks and began celebrating. The Jemmers, who were still confused, stared in disbelief. The Takers' mood had changed in an instant, from a silent, focused army to a triumphant, joyful crowd.
"I'll never get used to this," Mike said, his voice a low rumble. He looked out at the scene of the destroyed jets and the cheering Takers.
"Me either," Tckok replied, his helmet's glow dimming slightly. "But this is our reality now."
Wabrik, standing nearby, his massive form unmoving, added, "Yes. In order for our fruits to be sweet, we need to take out the rotten ones."
"It's like... right now they must have so many food stores," Sdik said, his voice a thin, excited wire. "Let's go through their stores."
Huim, a smaller Taker, looked down at the cowering Jemmer civilians. "We have to make sure those guys are okay."
Mike shook his head. "We can do that after Taken speaks to them. You heard what he said: 'Rainbow.' That means our job is done. We have Takers for just this job. We're fighters, not caretakers."
Mike and his crew turned and walked off, their job complete.
Then, from the hand-shaped ship looming in the sky, more Takers rained down. This time, their descent was slow and deliberate. They were equipped not with weapons but with health supplies and backpacks. They landed on the streets of Jem City, their footsteps gentle as they approached the cowering Jemmers.
The Jemmers were confused, but their fear was still evident. The Takers, who expected the Jemmers to be defiant or aggressive, were surprised when they simply surrendered and allowed themselves to be helped. The Takers tended to their wounds, gave them food and water, and offered a hand to those who were still hiding.
"I apologize for the violence," Taken's voice boomed over the city, a deep, resonating sound that echoed from every building. "But in order for there to be equity, you need to kill the noise. Now, I'll give you a choice: stay on this dead planet and get taken over by other aliens, or come with us and create a new universe where you're not used, and we all live as equals."
They all clapped. It was a gentle, continuous sound that spread through the streets as the Jemmers, their hands held together, showed their acceptance. They were looking up at the towering buildings, but Taken came out from the bottom, tiny Jemmers by his side. He held their hands, his mask was gone, and his hoodie was down.
Inside a random store, Sdik was eating food. He heard the clapping and started to clap, too.
Taken held up his hand, silencing the crowd. "Let's move."
The Takers connected themselves with the Jemmers, and with a brilliant flash, they shot up back to the ship.
"Damn it!" Sdik said. "The food here is so good!" He reached for more, but then Mike grabbed him, and they shot up as well.
"Noooo!" Sdik screamed.
Wabrik's voice cut through the comms. "Calm down, Sdik. We have more food on the ship."
Taken just stood there, watching the Takers and Jemmers ascend into the ship, a silent stream of light looking like rain moving upward.
After sending the Jemmers up, Taken's form was lit up in a purple glow. He put on his mask, which also glowed purple, and shot up toward his ship.
Earth
The scene shifts to Earth, cutting to a huge teleportation device that looks like a sunflower in the middle of a room. Inside the room, a human, the Supreme Captain, is watching a screen that shows what the teleportation device is seeing.
"What the hell is that?" the Supreme Captain asks.
"It looks like a small ship or something is heading toward us," a Captain responds. "But we can't make it out yet."
"When will it get here?" the Supreme Captain asks, his voice tense.
"In about ten seconds," the Captain responds.
"Get the defense ready!" the Supreme Captain commands. "We need to shoot it down. Let's move!"
The thing hits the atmosphere and starts falling to Earth at a high speed. The defense systems kick on and start shooting. The thing moves through all the fire, like a dragonfly cutting through the sky.
"It's going to hit Building 167775389668G! Tell them to get out!" someone yells.
But before it even gets to the other side of the city, BOOM! It crashes through the building, destroying everything in its path. It hits the ground like a nuke, destroying 20 other buildings around it.
Humans on the ground jump out of their buildings, looking toward where the thing has landed. They can't make out a voice, but they can hear one. A small child gets up from a destroyed part of a building, covered in dust and calling for their mother. Then, they hear a voice and look toward where the noise is coming from. Even with all the smoke, they can see a huge shadow standing just a couple of feet away. Then, they see blood-red eyes and a small, girl-like voice.
"Run."