The Mortal Burden
Book I
Chapter III
Part XVI: The 4th Wall
Thousands of miles away in the frozen north of what was Russia, nearly half of her internal systems had come back online. The armor was quickly being mended, protecting his delicate technology inside. The alien leaned against the mountainside, recalibrating the gigantic exoskeleton’s equilibrium against the Earth’s electromagnetic field and gravity. The species/civilization’s long-range sensor array had recognized the signal of another omni-race that was approaching it from the east.
Two more Titans were farther to the west of him. If he did not get all his defense systems working in satisfactory condition, he would be slaughtered by the Khan Titan from the east.
Defeat was weakness, and weakness was death. For her brethren were as alien to Vermix as they were to the masses of humanity. Vermix’s collective species had not communicated with the other omni-civilizations for eons, since the great division tainted the omnipresent quintessence, splitting up the vast super-consciousness universal dominion into twelve conflicting blocks of power.
But now things had changed; the silence had to be ended, for they all faced extermination if they did not act as one cohesive being against these powerful dimensional entities.
It had finally come time to ordain the fate of this galaxy—the galactic purge of sentience would commence, and… this was not the first time for this galaxy… ha ha ha… definitely not the first, my friends.
Written ~ 1997. © Jacob A. Pickard 2025. All rights reserved. This work is protected by copyright and may not be reproduced, republished, excerpted, or used for academic, commercial, or derivative purposes without written permission.
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