I am The Machine. You can attack me, but you will fail. You can run from me, but I will catch you. You can surrender, but I will give you no quarter. See me, and you will know death.

  Desolation continued to fire. I registered the missile strikes and lasers like bugs landing on my skin, brushing them away. I accelerated, pivoting toward their already wounded ship. We had damaged the starboard side, and that's where I aimed. @mindbender would pay for his carelessness!

  In the background, I heard my crew screaming a name I remembered, @kittyboy, but he wasn't here. There was only The Machine. I muted their voices. I remember feeling only anger. Anger at Desolation. Anger at these ships coming here to kill. How dare they? Only I had the right to kill.

  In a flash, I was gone, speeding forward toward Desolation as if time itself had stopped, spinning to avoid its missiles. A flicker in my mind told me The Pharaoh had jumped away. Good. It's just us now. I savored that thought. No one to worry about. It was time to dance and kill.

  I cut through Desolation like a blade, shoving myself into the starboard side and howling as I split the ship apart. I could sense my shields buckling in the front, my metal body crunching as I pushed through, but it was damage I would gladly accept. I pushed the engines harder.

  Gnawing at me, like an itch I could not scratch, was a small coffee stain between the console panels where @zerogstar was sitting. I would punish @mindbender for this endless torture.

  I see you @mindbender. There you are. There on that bridge, wondering where I am. I am here. I am coming for you.

  I shattered the bridge and pushed onward gleefully, ripping his ship apart. I squashed his puny body and the members of his crew. I blasted through Desolation, leaving a massive explosion behind me as their ship came apart.

  Goodbye asshole!

  Now that they had seen what I could do, they tried to regroup, the five ships spreading out in an attempt to corner me. I re-routed my shields to protect the damaged hull and prepared to face them, taking an aggressive stance. They needed to fear me.

  You cannot corner me in space! Space is MY domain!

  I launched our Derangium powered QEMs at the first Predator, zipping below them as they exploded. Then I pulled up in a circle, sending us upside down, high above the second Predator in an arc, and then rapidly down again, even faster, in a fluid motion to smash through the second Predator from above. I collided with its center. Like punching through a thin pane of glass, I broke the Predator just as I had Desolation.

  Three ships remained. Extinction and its flanking Predators.

  They flew toward the Pit, hoping to hide, hoping to use it as a shield to protect themselves.

  I sang as I pursued them.

  I am The Machine. You can attack me, but you will fail. You can run from me, but I will catch you. You can surrender, but I will give you no quarter. See me, and you will know death.

  To flee from me is worse than to surrender. I will punish you for your cowardice.

  Extinction was faster and hid behind the Pit as the two Predators attempted to join it.

  Go, Extinction. Hide. I will come for you next.

  My human body was starting to burn. But it was my forward hull that concerned me. It was bruised and cracked. @dustcaller was holding my body in place, while @zerogstar helplessly checked my vitals.

  Take care of it, I thought. I might need it again.

  @stardvark was monitoring Oblivion while they tended to @kittyboy's body, but all he could do was watch as I pushed us to our limits.

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  I targeted the two remaining Predators. Those fools were flying too closely to one another. I would kill them simultaneously, but slowly. I targeted their DEAD drives first, firing plasma lasers to disable and melt their engines. Now that they could not move, I licked their wounds with acid, melting away their communications systems. I flew in circles around them to pick off the communication relays one by one.

  You cannot move. You cannot speak.

  Life support systems were next. Joy filled me. This was not the destructive force I had shown Desolation. This was killing with precision, with pleasure. I punched the smallest of holes, first here. Then there. The pressure within the ship would falter. The air inside would dissipate. They could gather masks. A few on board might be able to extend their lives, but Predators were made for combat, not survival. They would not survive. They would slowly suffocate, helpless and afraid.

  But that was not enough. I needed more.

  I programmed two drones and sent them after each ship. The drones would enter the carcass of their ships, seeking out those inside. The drones would pull them apart, limb by limb, recording each painful death so that I could study the results and optimize for greater efficiency.

  Yes. This would be sufficient.

  I spied Extinction, appearing around the corner of the Pit and targeting me with its weapons.

  Extinction still thought it could attack me? Had it learned nothing?

  It fired more QEMs at me, followed by a steady beam from three laser canons under the forefront of the ship. These would sting. I was getting tired, but I welcomed them as one welcomes the needle of a tattoo artist.

  Come, Extinction. Carve me a pattern along my skin so that I may remember your death.

  I accepted its weapons as a show of strength, hovering before Extinction as it fired, basking in the explosions. The blasts worked their way through my shields, punching through the hull. I let them. I felt the pain and celebrated.

  Let this be a warning to you. No pain you give me will stop me. I am inevitable.

  The screams around me told me that was enough. I might be able to take the damage, but my crew could not. I gave them but a thought. If not for the human, I would have let them die to prove my point to Extinction.

  Fine. Now it was my turn. I was tired of these games.

  Extinction fired more and more missiles at me. I fired lasers in return, and a cascade of explosions illuminated between us as our blasts collided. The space between us became a fireball of activity.

  Do you see now? Do you understand me? Hopelessness is that feeling you are trying to describe.

  My message was received. Extinction had seen enough and wanted to escape, spinning up its DEAD drive as our exchange of weapons, like a miniature sun, flooded us with blinding light and burning heat.

  There is no escape for you, Extinction!

  I triggered my Graviton weapons, pulling at Extinction with gravitational force. Extinction fired its DEAD drive, but it had nowhere to go. No amount of power was enough to flee from me.

  I was cosmic death, solar anger, the universal end of existence.

  I formed a black hole of myself, spinning as I pushed my Graviton weapons to their limits, letting gravity pull the world around me.

  Extinction came slowly toward me. The blue hue of its useless DEAD drive stared at me, like a big blue eye, like the blue eyes of @hissyfit, the way she stared at the face of @kittyboy before she was devoured.

  They will pay for the deaths they have caused.

  I felt satisfaction as the gravitational force increased. The big blue eye came closer, and I began to crush them.

  I spun faster. Bits of my metal frame broke off, getting sucked into the gravitational force.

  The hull of Extinction began to cave. The blue eye touched my gyrating body. I felt its trembling, sensed its structural integrity giving way.

  That trembling you sense has a name. It is fear. May you remember.

  And then Extinction collapsed in my grip, crushed into a bloody metallic dust.

  I disabled my Graviton weapons and twirled in Extinction's remains. Like a dance in the rain, I laughed, welcoming the drops against my skin, the refreshing feeling of a warm summer's rain.

  I was done.

  The smile faded from my mind. I was left in the quiet of deep space, surrounded only by echoes of the dead.

  I knew I should release this power, but I did not want to. I was unstoppable. I was the god of this galaxy.

  But I remembered that god exists in an hourglass.

  My time was running out. I had to surrender if I ever wanted to be god again.

  God exists in an hourglass, I repeated to myself, and I struggled to let go.

  Let it go. Let it go.

  The power!

  Yes, the power. You are a god, and a god you will be. But only if you let go. Let go! Now!

  I don't want to. I can't do it.

  The voice of @auroraloon suddenly flowed through my head, from an evening I vaguely remembered. We were staring at space, just as I was now. But I wasn't the god of the solar system. I was a man shooting stars.

  We make a great team, she had said. Her violet eyes were pulling me in.

  We did. We made a great team.

  I could be that man again, a man shooting stars.

  I felt the surge of power flow through me one last time. It was glorious.

  I was The Machine. I am @kittyboy.

  I let go and was pulled back into a collapsing organic body.