All Gone...

        Zero Alliance soldiers on the ground are already celebrating the distruction of their own mine turned hostile.

        "Whewwww! There ya go! Big boom!" says one soldier.
        Another soldier replies, "we're not out of the woods yet. We still need to mop up the PTMC, and the robots."
        "Wait a minute. They operate on a remote signal from the mine. Didn't we...?
        The commander notices that there is something wrong with the battlefield picture. He grumbles to himself, "hmm. All that is left of the mine is a large crater that the mine supervisors will hate us for. There is no way that the robots can still be operating from a virus within the mine's computer. Must be an outside signal, but nothing can crack our wireless code. Who the hell...?"
        The ZA comms officer spins around in his chair and beckons the Commander. "Sir, I've got Zero callin for ya, sir."
   The commander tromps over and grabs a headset with Zero on the horn. "What happened?!? The mine is gone and the robots are still coming! Gimme a sitrep!"
        "Sir, the mine has competely been obliterated. I suspect an outside signal."
        "Impossible. Sensors would have picked up anything, whether it be normal, subspace, or dimensional."
   The Aurora Unit jumps onto the communication thread. "Can I make a random conjecture?"
        "Go ahead," Zero says.
        "Could it be that the mining robots have gained an enhanced AI all on their own?"
        "How could it be? relpied Zero. "They do not have the capacity for such a thing. Unless someone upgraded them, but I never authorized such a thing."
        The commander was looking out of the window at the time when he spotted an object rising out of the ashes of the mine. "Sir! There is a strange black, cigar shaped ship coming out from the crater. I am picking up zero readings. Wait a minute... There is some... What? A loss of interstellar mass? What is this?"
        "Dark matter, commander," said the Aurora Unit.
        "Woah! It is getting away at super high velocity!"
         A soldier standing by the dropship started to lose his balance. "The ground is shaking! Watch that gun tower! It's coming down! Woah!"
        The commander grabbed a handhold to stableize himself and said into the comm to Zero, "Sir! We are experiencing an earthquake! I thought Zeta III was a stable world!"
        Zero, who was observing the scene from orbit and looking out from a starbord porthole, notices the UFO incoming like a lawn dart! "It's coming right for us. Break left! Break left!"

        The UFO shoots by the Expediator at incredible speed, missing the hull of the ship by a few meters. Aurora Unit 001's voice comes booming over the ship intercom. "WARNING! SEVERE LOSS OF INTERSTELLAR MASS IN A 100,000 KILOMETER RADIOUS AROUND THE EXPEDIATOR! HULL CRACKED IN NUMEROUS PLACES! INTENSE BENDING IN THE SUPERSTRUCTURE! NANOTECH REPAIR CREW IS ON THE JOB! WARNING! SEVERAL SMALLER SHIPS HAVE BEEN EFFECTED GREATLY BY THE DISTURBANCE AND ARE ON COLLISION COURSES WITH EACH OTHER AND THE EXPEDIATOR! WARNING! PLANETARY IMPLOSION IS OCCURING! RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE EVACUATION OF THE AREA!"
         Zero could not believe a bit of what he was hearing. His eyes went wide and yelled into the comms to the commander on the ground.

     "Holy S---! Get your asses out of there, now!"
     "We're buggin out! Over and out!"
      Zero's forces quickly drop whatever they are doing and sprint at high speeds back to their dropships. They leap up 15 feet inthrough the rear ramp of the hovering dropships.
   

      The Aurora Unit resumes talking in her calm voice. "I was unable to track the object directly, but I was able to triangulate it's position around the 100,000 kilometer disturbance field. The object's disturbance field is currently minimal, but it is now leaving us in 3..2..1.. We are clear."
       "That doesn't mean that the damage isn't done," replied Zero. "Three of the six frigates are crushed like a soda can, two are impaling the carrier, two of the cruisers are smashed together..." Zero rolls his eyes and does a facepalm as he finishes reading the casualty report on his left arm data holos. "And one of those cruisers has been shoved up our ass."
        Zero just now looks out the porthole again and realizes the real disaster. His voice comes out weak and in a slight wisper. "Oh nooooo. The, planet. It's...I... Ohhhh. Everyone..."

     The planet was no longer a planet, but a new asteroid cluster that some of the most advanced autopilot systems could hope to navigate.

      "............What is the status of the dropships," Zero asks.
      Aurora Unit 001 replies in an almost inappropriately, cheerful tone considering the fiasco that just occured. "100 percent return rate. Zero KIA. 60 wounded. Good news, communications with command has been restored.
       Zero walks over front and center of the deck in a daze. He sits down in his command chair. He stares into nothingness and feels the eyes and slight mental connections that he has to others nearby, asking him for orders. He crosses his arms and slumps back in his chair and lets his gaze drift down to the floor as he thinks of the 1 billion inhabitants of the planet.

   All gone...