Autumn's Last Voyage

By evolution-500

Genre: Horror/Tragedy

Disclaimer: Starbreaker is a property owned by DC Comics and "Warhammer 40K" is a property belonging to Games Workshop. I do not own any of these titles nor these characters.

WARNING: This story contains references to violence, coarse language, disturbing themes and imagery. Reader discretion is advised.

Chapter Three: The King Of Terror

"So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear.

Farewell remorse; all good to me is lost;

Evil, be thou my good."

- John Milton

The black trapezohedron levitated off of the planet, trailing off into the atmosphere before disappearing into space.

* * * * *

From his throne inside the vessel, Starbreaker watched on the display screen before him as the world of Almerac was sent hurtling into the sun.

On another display screen, he watched as its population scrambled and screamed in terror and desperation, calling to their gods.

As they uttered their final last shrieks, the screen flickered off, while a modified satellite stirred to life on the ceiling, pointing directly down to Starbreaker's dark form.

Yellow eyes rolled back in pleasure as his form pulsated with power, the collar flaring and flapping as the satellite transmitted the energy directly into his body, savoring the flavor and seasoning of negative emotions of its population.

On the display screen, the sun gave its shuddering last breath, its form rippling with power before finally going supernova, while Starbreaker's drones collected all of the energies released.

In mere moments, only darkness remained.

Peeling his yellow eyes open, Starbreaker leaned back in his throne, a satisfied, rumbling growl echoing through the dark passages of his vessel.

A sun on its own was always a delicious meal to have, but the fear and despair of a dying world and species was the extra touch needed to make his food taste all the better.

Pushing himself out of his seat, Starbreaker calmly approached a window, folding his arms behind him as he observed the debris and stars outside, his mind a complex network of thoughts and reflections.

Eons ago, a lone Sun-Eater had inexplicably found itself in the middle of a war.

By their nature, Sun-Eaters were not sentient creatures - they cared not for political agendas, nor did they contemplate the meaning of life.

What mattered was finding food, their species existing only to consume suns, and nothing else.

However, on that day billions of years ago, something had changed.

A lone Sun-Eater had found itself wandering in the middle of a conflict, and despite all attempts at stopping it from both sides, it remained unharmed.

In their desperate attempts at trying to stop it from consuming their sun, trillions ended up dragged into it, and from this consumption, the Sun-Eater started to experience an inexplicable change over the course of time.

From this event, a flicker of intelligence emerged.

For the first time in its existence, the Sun-Eater was able to see things, understand things, even perceive things, things it didn't have a word or name for.

It was able to feel sensations that it had no words for, sensed things it didn't understand.

For a time, the Sun-Eater experienced confusion, then frustration, and finally, curiosity.

Staring out into the stars, Starbreaker letting out an amused huff.

To think that he had been such a simple creature back then, and now here he was, master of the stars.

Countless centuries were spent studying the various technologies it had encountered, along with the bodies of their owners, beings that were so much smaller and frailer than it.

And yet, to its growing fascination, it was able to interphase with their remains, access their memories, their knowledge, and from their remains, it had learned much more than it was able to comprehend.

It learned of sights, smells, touch, tastes and hearing.

It learned of art, of music.

It learned of laughter and emotion.

It learned of conflict and hatred.

It learned of loss and despair.

So many centuries had been endured in order to properly process and study these things, and many more had been spent understanding their technologies.

From the ruined satellite dishes that had been floating and scattered amongst the countless shipwrecks, he had learned how to use them for both communications and for directing energy into his own being. It had been during one of these experiments that he had inadvertently contacted another species, and for the first time in its existence, it had experienced social interactions.

Staring out at the window, Starbreaker chuckled as he recalled his nascent beginnings in remembrance.

He remembered how nervous he had felt after he had assumed the form of a species so different from his own.

Starbreaker's ancient mind recalled his first attempts at trying to live amongst the Korugarians on a distant colony of theirs, how awkward and scared he had felt at the time. How much he hated that sensation.

It was with the Korugarians that he had seen families for the first time, and on that colony, he saw something called "happiness".

He hadn't really understood it at the time, and for a brief period, Starbreaker had wondered what it meant to be happy.

He had asked others about it, but the answers given were myriad and confusing, even contradictory.

He had tried to relate to the Korugarians, even tried to understand them, but over time, he came to see how alone and sad he had felt, a stranger amongst a sea of beings so unlike his own.

All of them seemed so happy, and with so many of them living such small and fleeting lives, he started to resent them all the more for it, especially since they never lasted long.

On this Korugarian colony, he had experienced his first taste of pain, both his own, and someone else's.

The former had made him angry and scared, but the latter?

The taste of fear, it had turned out, was quite addicting, and he had needed more of it.

Thus, from this event, a legend was born.

Staring at his reflection in the window, the collar flared, yellow eyes gleaming.

Consuming suns and stars gave him plenty of power as it was, but the taste of dying species and worlds was something addicting.

He had visited many worlds throughout the billions of years, and everywhere he travelled, death followed.

Turning away from his reflection, he traveled down a long corridor, where a number of raised pedestals lined the sides.

On each pedestal was a glass display case, but floating suspended within was a disembodied head, each of them carefully preserved and attached to various wires and tubes.

On the bottom of the display case, a single label could be found.

Alstair.

Athmoora.

Avalon.

Bismoll.

C'ythonis.

Czarnia.

The petal-like collar flared as yellow eyes gleamed.

It had taken much effort to find a suitable skull from that species; whatever method Lobo had used to dispatch the rest of his kind, it had been incredibly effective, but thankfully there had been enough genetic material available to restore the head itself.

As Starbreaker admired his work, he pushed on, studying the other labels.

Dhor.

Krypton.

Terminus.

Tethys.

Thoron.

Trom.

Valeron.

Velorpia.

Viro.

Voorl.

Vryga.

Zintha.

Zoron.

Hundreds of heads lined the walls, a mixture of the human, the humanoid, and the inhuman, all of them from the countless worlds that he had visited and/or claimed throughout the centuries.

All of them were different in shapes, sizes and skin coloration, some having two eyes, one eye, dozens of eyes, hundreds of eyes, or no eyes at all.

Stopping in front of one display case in particular, Starbreaker picked up the newest head added to his collection, running an approving taloned finger along its sharp features in admiration.

A curious species this one was; from all indications, it seemed one that had once been capable of generating psychic powers, but countless centuries of inertia had resulted in their abandonment.

Its thoughts and memories, however, painted a dark and desperate picture - a once-grand empire now shattered, its people fated to endless horror, to struggle in a universe of perpetual darkness.

Staring down at the head, Starbreaker regarded it with fascination.

For billions of years, he had studied every species known in countless galaxies, studied every piece of art, literature and form of technology crafted, had traveled and visited every conceivable world imaginable.

From the blood-drenched world of Ysmault to the darkest corners of the universe, there wasn't a single world he hadn't visited.

And yet, it would seem there were many, many more beyond the veil of reality.

Another universe thriving with negativity, of relentless, unending brutality, suffering and conflict, where dark gods ruled and laughed.

A city of perpetual twilight and torment, where suns and worlds were extinguished for this kind's amusement.

A universe that knew only war. 

The petal-like collar flared, yellow eyes glinting as it thought of the endless opportunities presented.

New worlds to visit, conquer and consume, new species to torment...

Staring down at the disembodied Drukhari head, he pondered his options, measuring carefully the risks and rewards from this potential new pursuit.

Throughout the vast eons, he had created numerous business ventures, had gifted criminal empires, dictators, countries and worlds with a small portion of his immense power in exchange for various privileges. He had amassed enormous wealth and political influence, was gifted numerous worlds and properties of his own.

Many species worshiped him as a god, relied upon him for their feeble affairs.

And yet, admittedly, he was feeling a little...bored.

Slitted yellow eyes stared into the Drukhari's closed ones, his thumb caressing the disembodied head's cheek.

Perhaps he should pay this universe a visit, starting with Commorragh.

From the torso, a series of tendrils emerged, slipping into the skin and nerve bundles, the head letting out a shuddering gasp.

As the skin where the neck was started to seal, Khanzyth's eyes fluttered open, revealing a cold pair of glowing yellow eyes.

Tilting the head back and forth, Starbreaker studied his features carefully, testing the facial muscles, looking left, then right, all the while tuning out the Drukhari's screams for release in his mind.

Satisfied, the cosmic vampire pulled his mouth into a vicious, twisted, sharp-toothed grin, his twin fangs and fearsome yellow eyes gleaming in the darkness.

* * * * *

Author's Note: And that concludes this story!

So, some of you are probably scratching your head wondering why I would even bother devoting a story to such an obscure character.

When it comes to DC or Marvel projects, I sometimes like to look around and see what kind of characters are available that not only deserve more exposure and/or appreciation, but also might be potentially interesting to use for a given story.

Needless to say, the catalogues for both companies are absolutely MASSIVE, with an enormous wealth of characters that I had never even heard of such as Snowflame, the cocaine-powered supervillain, and Tyrannofucker Prime (which has to be simultaneously the most awesome and hilarious name for a character that I've ever heard of lol XD), among countless others.

It was when I was going through some of the Justice League heroes and villains lists that I came across Starbreaker, and once I had, I was admittedly kind of intrigued.

The idea of an interstellar vampire is nothing new in science fiction - there were the Star Vampire creatures from Robert Bloch's "The Shambler From The Stars", the movie "Lifeforce" and the novel that it was based on explored the idea back in 1976 and the eighties, plus Vampirella was originally an alien from the planet Draculon in 1969 before subsequent retcons were made to her character.

There were also the E-vampires from the video game "Gene Troopers", the awful "Dracula 3000", the Nagai and Anzati from "Star Wars", the fascinatingly snake-like vampires from the "Roswell Conspiracies" animated series, and to a certain extent the Drukhari and Blood Angels from "Warhammer 40K". I suppose an argument could be made that this also applies to the C'tan from 40K as well to an extent since they also consumed stars and worlds, especially considering their original relationship with the Necrons in old 40K lore.

So, what makes Starbreaker so special then? Well, for one, I'd argue Starbreaker is one of the first notable attempts at taking the classic vampire and placing it more in the realm of superhero/space fiction, albeit with his own interesting set of characteristics. He is also a surprisingly powerful character with a ton of interesting abilities that make him stand out from his peers, including the ability to change his size, firing energy blasts to being able to bend space and time itself, among countless other powers.

Since he appeared in 1972, fifteen years before "Warhammer 40K" was ever created, it kind of seemed appropriate to use something that kind of fit with those characters and with that setting.

The other reason was because, initially, the story was going to be based around the Drukhari invading Apokolips and encountering Darkseid, but I was admittedly kind of tired of seeing characters like him and Braniac being used over and over again.

Don't get me wrong, both are cool characters in their own right, but at the same time, though, they're kind of overused imo, and there are a ton of villains kind of more deserving to be in the spotlight, be it Starro the Conqueror, Evil Star, Mongol, Queen Bee, the Spider Guild, Doomsday, etc.

Thus, the idea of this story was born.

Shout-outs to Akularz-Shati, WymWrld, Stuff3 and Egyptianmaus for their insights into the Drukhari and for their suggestions - thank you so much for your help, guys! I enormously appreciate it!

Stay safe and healthy, everyone! :D