Chapter Text
The NULL army. A large faction of players, until recently led by JamatoP. Despite mostly being kept hidden, they were described as many things: the most powerful army, the oldest players of the server, the ruthless killers of anyone who stood in their way. But hidden in the walls during breaks from patrol, when they weren’t in battle or watched like a hawk by Jamato, they’re something else.
The silliest army the Unstable SMP has ever had.
Inside jokes, pranking each other, sneaking up on soldiers barely awake during night watch, all of it. It wasn’t safe – far from it. If their leader saw, they could die. They could be punished for the slightest lack of professionalism. That’s the kind of rule Jamato had over them.
And now that rule is gone. Now there’s Spoke. The one who outplayed their leader. Held the Totem that could doom them all. After taking over, most thought they were in grave danger. Over Spoke’s time in Purgatory they knew how much has happened, how much they’ve done to him. And while it was at the command of Jamato, how forgiving will their new Voidling leader be?
Right now? His command was to gather everything they can from the destroyed Purgatory and head to the End dimension. The soldiers marched obediently to the vault… while they were in Spoke’s sight. Once inside, conversations started immediately.
dITKHNTbJ: “…Well that was fucking scary.”
UfWltsU0s: “Yup, agreed.”
UfWltsU0s says back to her friend, mostly focused on the task.
oyUGR0ZMs: “Uzi, you were there with me at the pearl canon when we sent Spoke to spawn, right?”
Another loud, more gruff voice sounds next to them.
Uzi: “Groz yes I was but don’t say it like that. He’s our leader now. He’s got the totem. Remember what would happen to those who called the former leader anything but “sir” or a respectful title?”
All three shutter at the thought. Those friends from older days… not everyone made it to today.
dITKHNTbJ: “Anyway Groz, what was that about a pearl canon to spawn?”
Groz: “I just thought we’d be, y’know, going there to battle. I mean, y’all heard the rumors about what’s gone down there. Instead we’re packing up to go to the end to do… what?”
dITKHNTbJ: “…I dunno.
Uzi: “The leader just said to build a new home base there. I know Groz has the attention span of an iron bar, but how did you miss that too TK?”
TK: “I was too busy GETTING THE BLOCK UNDER ME BROKEN BY A CERTAIN SOMEONE.”
TK raised his voice into a scolding yell.
Groz: “Lol. You left your back unwatched bro.”
TK: “THE LEADER WAS RIGHT THERE. LOOKING AT US. IT’S A MIRACLE WE’RE ALIVE DUMBASS.”
His voice carried loud before he realized multiple other guards now looking his way with curiosity, and slight second-hand embarrassment.
Groz: “Chill bro, he wasn’t even looking our way. Bet he saw Ei do it to Aiz tho, that time he was looking.”
Uzi: “Do you think they lived?”
Before someone could answer Uzi’s question, the two, UEIeqlGbZ and aAIZXJSzEoM5 walk in along with the army, unharmed, though aAIZXJSzEoM5 does look slightly annoyed at their partner, while UEIeqlGbZ looks very pleased with herself.
Ei: “You guys talking about us?”
Uzi: “About your idiotic behaviour, specifically.”
Uzi says, still not even looking up – focused on the task at hand.
Aiz: “Bro YOU COULD HAVE KILLED US BOTH.”
Aiz’s voice was also loud, and slightly terrified.
Ei: “How would you have died, you have Feather Falling IV on your boots, we all do, chill Aiz.”
Ei shrugs, finding no big deal in the situation.
Aiz: “I didn’t mean the fall, Ei, I meant the leader seeing it! He looked right at us!”
Ei: “Eh, if he was gonna kill us he would have done it already.”
Ei just shrugs again and walks off to grab some items from the vault.
Aiz trails behind her, giving a small wave to TK, Uzi and Groz. Everyone returned to work – discussing theories about the future of NULL.
What followed was a lot of work. Spoke has ordered them to mine out the whole Games Arena. At this point, it was nothing’s new – resetting the arena was a common task, they did it all the time – and rumors spread. Among those who were there, at least. Commander Underscore, in private nicknamed CU because who was patient enough to say a name this long, pulled all NULL soldiers skilled in redstone up to the main control center – because the leader had a new order – build an ender pearl cannon big enough to send a thousand players at once millions of blocks away.
TK: “Bro this is impossible…”
Uzi: “No it is not. Focus TK. It’s a repetitive pattern, just follow it.”
TK: “…this is gonna end up blowing up in our faces.”
TK says, checking with the guy building next to him if the repeater is set correctly for the 7th time.
After a whole lot of redstone work, it’s finished. They don’t even have to be commanded – they form a line to the machine on instinct. This order is what Jamato would have demanded. Then their new leader arrived.
Spoke: “Wow. Look at this thing.”
Spoke walks along the line of soldiers waiting for his command, looking up at the machine, pure white eyes sparkling with awe.
Spoke: “Alright guys. This is a very beautiful line, but unfortunately I have to- let me go first.”
TK and Uzi, next to each other in line, exchange confused looks. An orderly line beautiful? Well it was kind of satisfying to look at… and Spoke’s going first? Not making someone else test it in case it blows up? That’s.. definitely new. They stay quiet though.
Spoke: “Alright, do I just throw the pearl up into it and it’ll do it’s magic?”
Spoke says, eyeing the pearl input part of the machine with interest.
Commander Underscore: “Yes you do.”
The commanders voice is different when he’s talking to Spoke. Despite the voice changer, he sounds more animated, more human.
Spoke: “Magic Ender pearl~”
Spoke says in a silly voice as he throws his pearl in. TK muffles a chuckle. That’s very new. With Jamato… well, on the rare occasion he showed himself to anyone but his commanders, he was usually invis and silent, just a threatening shadow with the enchanted totem in hand, terrifying anyone near.
The pearl thrown in gets accepted by the machine and readied over a bubble column to be launched (I don’t know redstone sorry if this is inaccurate idk anything about pearl cannons lol). Spoke is watching it, along with everyone else, the building team collectively bracing themselves in case they misplaced something and it did, in fact, blow up. To their relief, it doesn’t.
Spoke: “What? How does it do that?!”
Spoke sounds genuinely excited while watching the cannon work.
Spoke: “Oh.. my god. Good work everyone.”
While the first soldiers start throwing their pearls in, TK and Uzi exchange another glance. Spoke was currently distracted watching the cannon load pearls like an ADHD kid hyperfocused on something cool, so they started whispering.
TK: “…did I just hear what I think I heard?”
TK was doubting his own hearing.
Uzi: “Yup. The leader just said “Good job” at a completed order.”
Uzi sounds equally as surprised and confused. That is not something that happened… ever in NULL. Now it was said casually, by their new leader, at a pearl cannon.
When the time came, TK went first, glancing at Spoke with curiosity, a bit of fear and some new, friendly respect. He threw his pearl into it, and stood by with the rest of the crowd. Uzi went next. Throw it in, move to stand by. Spoke was overseeing everything, watching patiently as all the soldiers threw in their pearls. Uzi hesitated, but this was too big to ignore. What if it was a test? What if they’d be punished for not saying anything… damn I’m paranoid, Uzi thinks to herself, but so far, no caution was too much in the NULL, especially with the one holding the Totem of NULL.
Uzi: “Thank you sir. We gave it our all.”
Uzi says, her voice controlled, still like a military soldier giving a report.
Spoke looks at her, her head down and tension in her body like she’s bracing for what if saying that was the wrong thing to do. It was a lot. Did his slightly crazed by the high of imprisoning Jamato speech scare the NULL that badly, or are they used to having every decision next to the totem holder be life or death?
Spoke: “Uh, yeah, it’s great. You know you don’t have to call me that?”
Spoke says, trying to use his friendliest voice. The Totem is filling in the fear factor, so he feels no need to be scary to his own army. It was his new precious army after all!
Uzi: “What would you like us to address you as then?”
Still ever so polite, thoughts run through Uzi’s head like a storm, like using the wrong title once could end her. In the past, it could. Now Spoke didn’t make it sound like it would, but…
Spoke: “Just Spoke is fine. “Sir” makes me feel old.”
Spoke tries to joke, be more friendly. Uzi stays professional, but another soldier in the waiting crowd chuckles slightly. Mission befriend his army failed successfully. Close enough.
Next came the battle for the end portal at the base they were teleported to. It was like any other mission of conquest – go in, kill everyone, don’t die yourself. Except now instead of Jamato’s invis figure looming over them like a threat if they failed, there’s Spoke in the distance, waving excitedly, his awed cheers audible over the sounds of battle. After a longer while in Purgatory, it was nice to stretch, fight for a little. TK and Uzi fought side by side, Groz reuniting with them and finishing off a diamond armored player before they could attempt to run. Ei and Aiz were there too – the usually silly duo now locked in, back to back, covering each other when needed. It was fast and easy, no casualties – the village wasn’t prepared for them. Within minutes, they’ve found and dug down to the end portal, where they waited for commands.
After making sure all of them were alive, TK, Uzi and Groz sat by the edge of a block, watching the army be ready for attack. They were, well, as chaotic as ever when they had to wait for something. Someone even, somehow, made a hole to Void. Right there. Or was it already there? The fact they do know is someone fell through it. It was luckily no one they knew. The conversation between Commander Underscore and Spoke does catch their attention. TK is curious about their next move, Groz is wondering if Spoke had noticed a soldier somehow falling to Void in the middle of waiting for battle, and Uzi is listening carefully. After the interaction at the pearl cannon, she became much more interested in their new leader – because of how different he was from the previous one.
CU: “Spoke. You proved that you’re the strongest player on the server. I expect nothing less than destruction.”
CU says, his voice cold again. Spoke didn’t like that. Some destruction was fun, he’s done a fair share of that even before NULL… but this time, it was about MinuteTech. A friend. He didn’t want to destroy a friend… but they needed a home. He needed to take care of his army.
Safety precautions. Though it seemed weird, Spoke seemed to make more than Jamato. Or maybe just in other areas. Jamato had his fair share of security – of his identity, his control of the NULL, his plans. Spoke took precautions… to protect them. Throwing In potions, then arrows, just to check if the other side is safe. It happened again, just as TK drew his bow – the “Great job everyone.”, casual, simple, but so different. The were no soldiers sent in as a test of safety, no one sacrificed. Spoke went in first himself to attempt to negotiate. Now… the army had a few minutes to prepare and discuss… everything.