CHAPTER 5: A Planet Worthy of Life

The citadel of the Teddy Emperor had just landed on a small and desolate planet. There was not much on it. The soil was dead( well, not dead, because it had never been alive before) and filled with carbon dioxide, it was colored a dark gray, almost black. There were oceans of lava and oceans of water made from the same ingredients which first filled the oceans of earth in which life was born. 

The planet circled a small white star and had 2 moons orbiting it. The planet was slightly smaller than earth and also in the habitable zone of the star.

The citadel landed inside a ginormous crater. While landing it stirred the winds and sands and ashes had been blown into the air, creating a small sand storm in and around the crater.

A hole appeared inside one of the walls of the citadel and a small bridge extended down to the ground. It landed with a thud on the ground and light shone through the hole, it was blindingly bright. In the light appeared a silhouette of a human and a plushie in his arms.

Down the path walked the Teddy Emperor, wearing a self-designed space-suit and he carried a Teddy in his arms and petted her continuously. "A rock which supports life. Fantastic!" He chuckled, "We will spread plants and bacterial life here until we can breathe, then we will build a homebase and cities and establish a kingdom on this… No! An empire! We will establish an empire and spread it throughout the solar system and then throughout the galaxy."

He stepped off the bridge, he was now the first digital life-form that set foot on a planet. His eyes wandered over his new surroundings before he spoke once more: "What an ugly piece of rock we chose."

He continued walking and started to walk uphill to leave the crater. He had landed in the deepest crater on the planet, approximately 2 kilometres deep. He was not in good shape, so walking up the crater took a little over 4 hours. 

He stepped over the edge of the crater, his hand held high above his eyes to block out the sun which was blinding him. The earth was dark, hills on either side of his field of view encasing the sunset. "Well, that took some time." A smile crossed his lips and decided to stay.

The view of the barren and lifeless planet was beautiful, the way the sun reflected from the ground and against the hills. The 2 moons emerging in front of the sun and the light slowly turning red.

The Teddy Emperor, well, let us call him Lukas for a bit, sat down. The plushie on his lap was also watching the sunset. His left hand rested on the plushie's head and slowly petted it. Then in Lukas eyes tears were forming, his smile slowly faded and the sun was reflected in his pupils.

Lukas grabbed the plushie with both arms and hugged it tightly to his chest and tears started streaming down his face. He made an ugly face, not caring for his appearance because nobody could see him. "I'm so freaking lonely." A disgusting cry escaped Lukas' lips before he buried his face into the plushie.

***

Someone in a dark cloak was running through the connected citadels. He was carrying multiple objects which appeared to be weapons still in development. Cables were hanging out from beneath his cloak and his face was covered by bandages.

A few dozen metres behind him a group of armed Maxes and Lukases were running, each wearing a similar outfit: "Get him!" One of them screamed. One of them reached for his gun and started shooting at the man.

"No, you don't!" He muttered. From beneath his cloak his arm revealed an upgraded laser-gun which was polished to perfection, mirroring all light which touched it. He spun around blocking the lasers which were fired at him before shooting back and hitting the person which shot at him, effectively killing the man. 

"A24! Stop it!" Another one screamed, completely ignoring the man who was just shot.

A24 threw a glance from behind his shoulder: "Be quiet, H49! You don't understand why I am doing this."

"Then stop and tell me!" H49 shouted and looked back towards the other men running with him. He glanced at them seriously and nodded. They nodded back before running into alleys and buildings and crowds. Only H49 was still running towards A24.

A24 was speeding up and turned into a different street.

The two of them continued playing tag, running around hundreds of corners and increasing the distance between them slightly more with each step they took.

A few minutes later A24 walked into a door, closing it behind him and resting against it. "Finally some time to rest." He muttered. A deep breath.

He stood back up, picking up the few bits of metal he dropped while entering. A24 walked down a staircase into a basement. At the bottom he clicked the switch to turn on the light and threw the stolen objects into a box next to a table with a very big gun he was currently working on.

On each corner of the table were chains connected to the ceiling and if one would look just a little closer, all the furniture had those kinds of chains connecting them to the ceiling of the basement.

He sat down on the small wooden chair next to the desk and took out his tools and started working on the gun. Every few moments he grabbed into the box and took out some materials he just stole, ripping them apart before using them to work.

"Almost done." He muttered and then heard something rustling in the darkness of his basement. He continued working, but faster. He dropped his tools to the ground, stood up and started closing his new gun.

Then the sound grew louder. A24 jumped up and turned around, pointing his new gun at the source of the noise. The gun lit up and a small orb of light formed at the tip. "I knew you people wouldn't just let me leave this easily." He said as H49 came out of the darkness, his gun pointed at A24, "Where is my team?"

"Bring them out." He said and instantly, A24 was surrounded by a dozen armed men, some of them pushing people wrapped in ropes and chains. All of the chained people were wearing heavy armor.

A24 put down his gun and turned away from H49.

"What are you doing?" H49 asked.

A24 ignored him and started putting on similar heavy metal armor the chained people were wearing. "Be quiet." He said.

"What happened to you, A24? You were one of the best of us. The strongest and most skilled soldier from our citadel and now you're just… you turned into whatever this is." H49 pointed at A24 putting on his armor, "Your friends are caught and we have you completely surrounded, that little armor against—" He was quiet for a moment, "Is that a flesh burning suit? You aren't seriously considering fighting us like this. Ha! That is suicide!"

"No, not you. You will die, but not by my hands. I just want to survive your killer."

"My killer?" H49 quickly turned to all the wrapped up people, all of them were wearing flesh burning suits then he looked at his feet, the ground started moving. He looked up at A24 who looked him into the eyes while putting on his helmet.

A24 grabbed his weapon and the floor opened up, dropping them down into the lower floors of the citadels. "5 citadels, 5 monsters." He chuckled, "You are not ready for this." And with that sentence all of them dropped into the lower floors, falling for what felt like ages.

A24 and his wrapped up friends landed on their feet, the chains already off them. H49 dropped hard onto the ground, hurting his leg. Some of the police he had with him died on impact, others broke body parts and started screaming.

"Guns up." One of A24's friends whispered. Everybody, including the police and H49, listened to him.

The lower floors smelled like rotting flesh and metals. It was dark and silence hung in the air. 

A scream behind them. Everybody turned around and saw the lifeless body of a policeman hanging in the air. The light had left his eyes but his arms still held on to his gun and he started shooting as fast as the weapon allowed him into the crowd. 

"Run!" Someone screamed and everybody took off in different directions. Some policemen started sprinting into the darkness, others tried to hide in small rooms or run up the stairs which were walled off at the top. There was no escape for those unprepared to fight and survive. 

H49 was the only person calm enough not to run off.

"Activate the shields!" One of A24's men commanded, "These things won't be able to penetrate your skin."

"Get H49, he may be valuable, so keep him alive as long as possible."

"What?" H49 asked in confusion as two of the armored men pushed him to the ground and wrapped chains around his body. "Don't you fucking d—" He tried to say as one of them hit him against the head hard enough to knock his forehead against the stone floor and knocking him unconscious.

One of them picked him up and held him like a full body shield before wrapping a digital shield around H49: "He will wake up in a moment, I will try not to hurt this asshole, but if necessary, I won't hold back."

The group continued walking down the dark alleys, shooting and destroying the occasional tentacle in the air. From time to time they even had to kill one of the policemen who was being controlled by the tentacle. Well, not kill, they were dead the moment the tentacle reached their skin. 

They made their way deeper into the lower floors. They were not trying to flee, they had a different idea. Their goal was to find the connection halls of the lower floors, because they were extended but never retracted or built around.

"How far are we?" A24 asked.

"We should be at the point where the connection hall starts in 5 minutes. It should still be extended but the door to access it will likely be locked, either to lock in our Lina or, if we are correct, the Linas of the different citadels."

"I hope their Linas are trapped somewhere. If they aren't, then the stairs should also be locked off." A24 muttered.

H49, who was awake again for the last half hour, opened his mouth: "Please don't take me into their citadels! Their monsters may be stronger and more dangerous. Please"

A24 and a few others chuckled: "Would be a problem if we didn't already plan for it, but happy we did!" A24's eyes narrowed: "I think I can see the last door. Lina is either in there, guarding the door and waiting for us, or it is hiding somewhere, let us just hope it hasn't broken through the door and into the connection hallway."

"That is one scary thought."

***

"Hey, Lukas!" Max shouted. He was sitting on a rotating office chair in a laboratory, "You gotta see this!" He threw himself back in his chair.

Lukas came running inside. He was putting on his coat, already wearing protective glasses and was holding a glowing soldering iron: "What's up? What happened?" He had an excited grin on his face. "Tell me! Someone died?"

Max turned back towards the screen in front of him displaying Lukas: "The Teddy Emperor just got depressed. Funny shit!" 

"Haha!" Lukas started laughing, his eyes fixated on the screen which was displaying the simulation, "For real? That freaking amazing! I just got some character development." 

Max's eyes turned towards the hands of Lukas: "What are you working on?"

"Space-laser." He answered simply, his eyes staying on the screen.