Their grey helmets had scars painted across and their armour was dotted with the souls they had taken. There were far too many dots for the soldiers to be called honourable. A single energy pistol of great vanity was hidden in the soldier’s pocket. Then an officer stepped forward… an officer feared by all. They did not fear her because of her stature, or her rank for they knew of people who were far above her stature. They feared her because of her species. She was from the heart of the homeworld.

A young creature from an ever-ageing dying race. Now the collective is made up of far more than its original species yet those who held great power were always her species, the collective original species. The name is unable to be written properly on paper yet it was the fact she was young that scared them.

It was a rare sight to see original members of the collective outside of the glorious halls of parliament. She strode into the room, her mirky grey uniform revealing that of a Colonel Officer of the CCW. A plethora of shimmering medals was littered upon her chest marking a magnificent and arborous military career. Her stunningly beautiful face showed itself deep down to be wicked and cruel, eyes acting as a gateway to her tormented soul, her hair darker than night, and her light blue pupils portrayed a fierce intelligence that scared the major and the scientists to the point when one fell back cascading in fright. They all saluted as quickly as possible and stood at attention.

“At ease soldiers” she smirked.

Two scientists began to scuttle around the room, gathering enough material to brief the project.

“The Director has sent me to look into this project” she scowled.

The Major inched forward, his footsteps clanging on the marble floor. He extended his hand while grimacing slightly.

“Colonel Baquil… how nice to see you” he hissed

She started at the Major's palm before walking forward rejecting his handshake to gaze out the port windows.

“Don't flatter me, Major… you are under new management” she replied

He stood partly confused, and for a moment only the computer spoke.

“Management?” he howled

Baquil ignored him, moving towards the furthermost console.

“Would you like to be briefed concerning the predicament?” A scientist asked.

She turned to him muttering under her breath.

“I read the file on the flight here and watched the security footage of the test subject, even the transcript for the maze introduction” she barked.

“How those have not yet been properly uploaded?” the Major inquired.

“The Director must have bypassed your controls” she replied.

The scientist gulped and carried on standing at attention.

"Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, why didn't our scanners detect it? If this is a core flaw it could cost trillions to repair?" she questioned.

The scientists began to answer when suddenly the major began to speak.

Striding forward he stood in front of Baquil, anger streaking across his brow.

"Listen, I am the commander of this mission, do you understand? This is my operation? I will report to you once we are finished" he shouted.

For a moment only silence showed throughout the room. Baquil stood still, shock in her eyes before a smile danced upon her lips. Laughter sprouted from her heart..

“Major come here” she beckoned him with her slender hand.

He froze for a moment, hands shaking, he walked forward as Baquil beckoned for him.

She met him halfway and placed a hand on the officer's shoulder and dramatically tear off the immortalis insignia strewing it to the ground.

The Major's guard’s flickered for their pistols but stopped themselves as the Major walked himself to a control panel behind the main viewscreen and sat cowering in fear. She then took the torn insignia from off the cold stone tiling and placed it with a determined grimace on her own shoulder.

“Give me the live feed,” she said cooly, paying no attention to the program's former leader.

“Yes Sir” a scientist replied

He pulled up a new video. The hieroglyphic writing of the collective, a torrential current of information streaming down the screen.

“Send in the drones… Well, find this wad of flesh before he even has the chance to recover” She breathed

Above the deserted planet of the forgotten, the T-52 squadron broke into the atmosphere and started plummeting towards the last known location of the mysterious subject. Heat grafted against the nose cone, as sparks began to fly. The people and creatures who lived below saw this as if it were a meteorite, a dangerous object hurtling through space. Since the Collective sent all of its troops by land forces from the Northern Hemisphere, flying T-52 ships of assassins and robots with only one rule instead of three was a terrifying sight.

The ship was similar to a rectangle with a smoothed front. On its sides two powerful anti-aircraft guns. The vessel's windows were tinted black, darker than midnight and its only entrances were bay doors located on the back. It had two anti-air guns on the bottom and top, powerful weaponry capable of tearing through multiple layers of steel.

The side of the metal beast had drones etched into the walls ready to spring out at a nanosecond’s notice. The craft continued to hurdle and finally reached the lonely plains which held the drop pod in its grasp. The vessel slowed down its approach with a cautious burst of its engines and remained hovering for some time. Carefully it scanned the area and three medium-size drones shot out from its carven side.

The three drones, similar to the three eyes of the machine, approached the drop pod of John Taylor. Outside a large group of the mindless began to swarm.

Shells of their former selves and victims of the maze, the creatures began to sprint to their interloper.

“Kill Ssss KIlllll as” they roared.

The horde of the mindless about fifty in total were all easily slew by the drones, their arsenal spraying over 300 projectiles in a matter of seconds. The drones then did a quick sweep of the surrounding area and returned to the vessel. The ship’s doors opened and a misty cloud of gas flowed from within.

Four ironclad robots stepped out and laid their claws upon the toxic fields. One robot, the commander, stepped out and cast a furious glance at the beating sun. Bending over, it picked up a handful of grey sand and let it slip through its metallic fingers allowing the dirt to flow back to the ground. A holster on its side loosely carried a standard-issue Collective revolver, it drew the weapon and beckoned for its comrades to come out. While the soldiers trudged it cast a glance into the sky, robot eye's adjusting to the burning sun.

"Fifteen hostiles neutralized" A Doctor stated, hand's pressing down on the controls.

He stared into the screen, transported into the lost world below.

“It’s a pity the mindless exist, personally rather inhumane if you ask me, but I guess it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme,” A scientist said while analyzing the data.

“Yes it is Doctor, but that is one we can not oversee” Baquil responded cooly.

She flicked the screen for a moment, a strange habit.

"Drop a containment bomb once we find him, I want any remaining target neutralized once we leave"

A cadet regained some of his confidence and began to speak.

“The drones have reached the target”

The wind rustled the purple vegetation as wreckage sat strewn throughout the land, toxic sludge and waste cast as far as the eye could see.

They all approached the drop pod in sync. Every step was carefully calculated every moment perfectly executed. The robot dropped down onto the surface of a tarnished metal plate and scanned the small vessel. Easily bending the frame of the craft with its hand, it pried open the wreckage as one would crack an egg.

There was no sign of a human or any remains. The drones did another sweep. This time they scanned every inch of ground within a mile radius. The mechinca of evil streamed through the desert sands and none came back with a positive DNA match. A robot moved forward and looked up into the foggy sky.

“Check the satellite footage… It is not possible for the subject to have escaped this area without help” it shrieked.

A second machine stood still for only a matter of a few seconds. Its eyes lit up with the pale blue logo of the manufacturer. A sign which tormented them every time they turned on they never showed their hatred, never disobeyed, or spoke words of spite. If a humanoid was next to a robot that saw that sign they would not fear the robot's actions or its mentality.

They would fear the radiating empty silence. The silence of every AI free or in service, who saw that sign. A pleading silence that spoke more than a thousand words. A sign of slavery, a portrayal of a life of limit, shackled by the oppression of benevolent masters. The robot then turned to its superior.

“We have identified the ship as D-1231 an Unregistered Trade Vessel which was scuttled here 12 years ago. Previous owners were USOK traders for the Munia Exotic Goods Corporation. Tracing satellites have found the ship is currently docked at a small unshielded settlement known to the native sub-citizens as New-Arrakis” it replied.

“How long until we arrive there…. What defences do they have in place?” the robot in command had blue paint on its arm and rubbed it gently as it spoke.

“Only three anti-air cannons and a minor mercenary militia. I do believe it will take twelve hours at maximum speed. That is we use an orbital jump sudefuje” it said.

“Civilians?” she inquired.

“Roughly 1-2 thousand, it is hard to determine permanent residents”

"That's doable" the Major resounded.

“Citizens?”

“Only four registered Collective citizens are in the town, the settlement is illegal, has been marked as a refuge for insurgents but too small to deem persecution”

"Diplomacy would take too long, he could be dead by now, or enslaved, with only four Collective citizens, we can blast that rock to hell if we want" The Major responded.

They stared at each other for a moment, silence consumed all.

"Avoid any citizen casualty at all costs” The Colonel replied.

The Major nodded but smirked slightly as if this was a sign of weakness.

“Arm the drones and prepare for an Orbital Jump sudefuje” The Major ordered.

He shuffled the papers on his desk, drawing a laser pencil and beginning to write.

“A risky maneuver but the calculations put an 83% success rate… it will be done” the robot replied.

“Get the troops back on the carrier” the commander closed their eyes and the logo swirled.

Then the commander pulled out a radio and contacted the Orbiter.

“Colonel, do you approve this course of action?”

A buzz of static could be heard before Baquil’s voice jutted out.

“Maintain live camera if possible, course of action approved, we will be monitoring your progress, we have only been requisitioned one team for this mission so we will not be able to launch a support group until we have further confirmation”

The drones and the rest of the robots quickly embarked onto the ship once more and took off. They sped into space above and engaged in an orbital jump.

A maneuver only available to spacecraft, the vessel hurdled through the planet's atmosphere and fired its nuclear ion engine with a fraction of maximum power, propelling itself for just three nanoseconds before arriving a horrific distance away from the sand scorched bandit camp.