The Color Factory

Chapter 1

There are many worlds, many stories, many beginnings and endings. It is a world on the edge where our story takes place, on one hand the center of a darkness like no other, on the other  about to be the home of one of the brightest lights in the multiverse.

Now let us go there, first we go to a cubular galaxy, nothing special there, but looked at another way we see that it is held together almost completely by magic. Now look to our goal, a solar system on one of the outer edges. You see it? Yes, the yellow one. Now as we zoom in we see that this star is barely bigger than the planet it orbits. That is right, this a geocentric solar system. But looking closer we realize that it is barely stable. The sun orbiting close enough to make the seas boil in the summer and freeze in the winter. The planets moon and asteroid field create tidal forces that threaten to tear the planet apart.

Now we look to a piece of the world, shrouded in night and licked in the heart of winter. There buried in the snow lies a building. The word that describes it best is vast, but that is neither here nor there. Our destination lies deep in the heart of this foreboding place. A room that is also vast, containing an entire village. And in one of these houses lies a woman deep in labor.

“He’s coming!” she grasped breathing heavily to dial down her fear and panic. Her hair sparkling bright enough to turn the dark of the birthing room to bright noonday. Her hands groping around for  some sort of reassurement, but none was to be found in this sterile room. The robots watching her could care less for her pain. There equine forms emotionless and some how cruel.

I don’t think I can watch, no, I KNOW i can't watch. Too much pain. So instead I will summarize the events.

The child was born on New Year’s, 0:01 hour’s (12:01 at night) in the year 1,000 of the rainbow lords. (More on them later) He was born in the Caul and breach. His mom had a sickness that prevented her blood from clotting, the Hemorrhage would have killed her, if the robots had not taken her away to harvest her color one last time.(ouch) The child wasn’t even given a name just a serial number: ISA-5-19. And if the rainbow lords had an other dimensional book they would know to be very worried.

Sixteen years later...

“ISA-5-19 it is your turn for the final color sap, do not resist.”

“What?” he said dumbfounded as the robots handcuffed him. “I’m not even twenty five yet!” And truly our sad hero was only sixteen years of age. Those years had not been kind to him. With no mother or father he had been raised communally until he was old enough to care for himself. At that point he was dumped to fend for himself with the rest of the homeless. His face and body was scarred from his many fights with the guards.

“ISA-5-19 do not struggle, you are late for the final color sap.” Said the unicorn guard, a high end unicorn model robot, directly controlled by the slave manager AI known as DRAGON.

Ignoring the unicorn Isa continued to struggle as the robots dragged him out of the village and into the factory. As the robots dragged him along miles of corridors they passed many unusual preparations. Assembly lines worked overtime to create the necessary weapons and supplies to equip the thousands of living and nonliving soldiers they passed on there way through the factory.

Three hours later...

The unicorn bot had passed while DRAGON began the long process of opening the color sap door. Now or never Isa thought as he worked his hand out of the cuffs and grabbed the knife he had fastened from a old unicorn bot horn. But before he could plunge it into his heart his surroundings turned gray scale and a voice said “Are you sure you want to do that?” Isa jerked as his knife dispersed.

“Who are you, and why have you denied me death?”

“Turn around.” The voice said now behind our hero.

Unusually curious, Isa turned around and beheld the strangest figure. He was a short fellow, a full foot under Isa’s six foot six. With an unruly mop of ginger hair that stayed one hue no matter how long Isa stared at it.

“You don’t have to die like this,” the stranger said tossing the knife from hand to hand. “Alone in the dark, with nothing but regret to send you on your way. You could do more, take this knife.” He said holding it out to Isa. “And strike back at your tormentors. Wond the dragon,” He gestured at the frozen Unicorn bot. “And at the very least, die knowing you did something.” As he turned to go, he looked over his shoulder and said, “They have a chink in the armor right on the back of the neck joint.” And with a wink he was gone.

Isa looked at the knife in his hand and at the bot. Die for something, he thought gripping the knife tighter, Might as well. And with that he leapt forward and stabbed it, right in the sweet spot.

At once all the color returned to the word, and the robots started to twitch and spark like they were broken. Not wasting time Isa immediately started to run down the corridor and out of site.