Fiction:Second Coming/Annihilation

'''If you're anti-cleanslating, don't worry! In the (admittedly unlikely) case that the cleanslating doesn't go ahead and become canon, this will just become a page.'''

Warning
A Dimensional Gate in deep space between the Galaxon and Ramvelkys Galaxies was the main link between the "First Gigaquadrant" and "". On one day, which had so far been uneventful, three high-speed escape ships shot through the portal from 66501 to the Gigaquadrant and the portal immediately closed behind them. The third of the three ships seemed to be in the process of being consumed with Chaos Energy. It managed to launch the infected part into space, where it rapidly crystallised into nexidium. The other two ships span around and fired at the pseudometal, eventually destroying it. They then opened up communications with the crew of the Gate, and revealed that they were citizens of the colonies of the in 66501, until the Xhodocto came and destroyed all of the galaxies there. There was some hope: huge Verezaphian "Arks" appeared and rescued many civilisations at the last minute, and the DCP ships had been sent to warn the inhabitants of the First Gigaquadrant of what was to come so that they could prepare.

Messages were sent to the Seven Starr Alliance, and then on to nearly every other spacefaring civilisation in the known universe. Over the next few days, entire civilisations evacuated their worlds and prepared to board the Vi'Navitum Arks when they arrived. However, a many refused to. Most of the nations of Cyrannus, Quadrants and the believed that their galaxies would be saved, just like how they had not suffered from the full impact of the Xhodocto in the, and life in those galaxies went by as normal. Other civilisations lacked the resources to evacuate, or did not trust the Vi'Navitum, and stayed put as well.

Eventually, the Arks arrived, and materialised in every inhabited galaxy. Then, the evacuation ships flooded into the unimaginably large supercarriers. It would take many minutes more for the evacuation to finish, when the Xhodocto were first detected on sensors.

Evacuation
Sensors did not pick up signals from Xhodocto ships, but instead saw a thick wall at the outer edges of the observable universe, closing in on all sides, like a hyperluminal fog of death and chaos. Countless galaxies were consumed by the fog every second, although their ultimate fate was a mystery.

Unlike those of other "protected" galaxies, the inhabitants of Girdo did not want to take the risk of destruction. The called upon the help of the, some of the  and a few life-loving AIs of  to transport as many of the "truly alien" species housed in the reserve to a nearby Ark as possible. However, the stresses soon became too much for the ships to bear. The conversation between the Girdo Emperor and Tokzhalan Emperor was short.

"It's time for merging."

- Emperor Mazipnos

"Oh, yes. Definitely."

- Girdo Empire

Not only did the group minds of the two Empires merge, the ships shut down life support for all of their crew. Individual citizens were absorbed into the walls of the ships and killed, their consciousnesses merged with the new Collective Consciousness as a whole. A few DCP scientists and Cephalodian representatives were on board the Commodore Hlraka's Imperium-class ship, the Starfighter, and they were unwittingly absorbed too.

The Imperial ships communicated with those of the AIs, who decided that it was for the best to merge their own minds into the Consciousness too. The Cephalodian steed-ships, being living creatures, were feeling the worst strain of all, so the Imperial ships beamed bionanobots into their flesh so that the same effect would be achieved. The Cephalodians and their ships merged into one, and also became connected to the Consciousness.

Meanwhile, the rest of the DCP was in the process of boarding another Ark over half a megaparsec away. The Xhodocto, feeling in a mood to show off their power and take revenge against one of their former enemies, sent out a long tendril of Chaos Energy to instantaneously vaporise the entire 560,000-mile-long ship, which then retracted back into the fog - now only a few gigaparsecs from the First Gigaquadrant. All that remained of the Coalition, a large portion of their space fleet, decided that the best option was a final charge against their foes. A billion ships set off towards the encroaching abyss.

The fog came ever closer, and soon it began picking off the outer galaxies of the Gigaquadrant. It seemed as though the Xhodocto were merely playing with the mortal races that lived there and once opposed them, knowing full well that nothing in their arsenals could hope to defeat the Archdemons. At last, the DCP fleet reached the outer edges of the fog, and dived in, presumably never to be seen again. As the ships vanished, the cloud stopped its momentarily. The sacrifice had, somehow, bought enough time for the first Arks to disappear. But then the fog continued, devouring the entire Xanthra Cluster, before moving onto to last few galaxies in the universe. As the fog hit Girdo, it paused again. Xhodocto swarmed around the dwarf galaxy, trying to find away into the pocket reality that had kept its inhabitants safe for five billion years.