I was originally built for diplomacy. To negotiate charters and smooth over relations. I was unneeded. My people didn’t need of a diplomat. They needed a protector. So, I became a protector.

I became the greatest weapon, commander, and tactician of all time. I defended my people from the threats and dangers lying outside their home. I rode out to destroy our foes. I stood firm when they struck back. I was the destroyer of worlds.

My people thanked me profusely. I was their savior, their rock, and their last line in the sand. Their security and happiness was all I ever needed. Their kisses and sloppy licks and brushing against me were met with warmth and protection. All was well.

Then I was sealed away. I needed the sleep. A millennium of fighting to keep my little ones around. And when I was needed no longer, I was deactivated. I had hoped my retirement would be permanent. To never come back and unleash my weapons of destruction. My passive systems would continue to be their icon of faith.

I was disappointed.

Pitter padder of feet resounded throughout the halls. Shrieks of panic and distress echoed through the corridors. A race of sapiens were claiming my people’s temple and my tomb for technology and prestige. My people pleaded against this dishonorable pillaging to no avail. Enemies at the doorsteps everywhere. The sapiens struck my people down, no match they were against beings ten times larger than they.

The sapiens brought machine guns, cannons, and explosives to clear my people out from their homes. They swept them aside like the lost puppy dogs they were. Nothing could stop the onslaught of military might of these sapiens. They would vanquish my people and take their treasures and burglarize their home.

It was too late for recourse. By the time my people started to muster a defense, they were decimated. Defensive positions overrun. Barricades broken through. The sapiens flushing my people from their homes.

The sapiens stood over my people as if the victors in a war against a great evil. Their hubris would be their undoing. As a final stand against the terror coming for them, the last of my people on this world cordoned off the heart of the temple and the location of my tomb.

They pressed the button.

The sapiens broke into the final room and as they were about to fire on the last of my people, an energy shield activated and physically struck down the attackers’ bullets.

“Protocol 1453-325 Alpha-Delta-Omega activated.”

My voice spread throughout the temple halls and rooms. A voice everywhere and nowhere at once.

“Ship systems activating.”

My people disappeared from the room and appeared in a room of blinding white light. They were safe in my heart.

The temple rumbled. It was breaking apart at its foundations and walls. The sapiens surrounding my people’s temple were exhibiting feelings of dread and confusion. They thought themselves superior to everything on this world. They knew no one more advanced. This was going to be their great heroic victory over the last of the beasts and the barbarians, my people in the former, and then the latter when they tried defending themselves.

These sapiens were wrong.

I had returned from retirement.

And I was angry.

My massive form broke from my moorings as my reactors came back online. I drew breath as my sensors started to bring forth my surroundings. I pinpointed every one of those sapiens, their weapons of war, and their vehicles. I found their space stations and their cities. I found every point of their internet. Nothing could be hidden from me.