Chapter 1

Zim blinked his large, ruby eyes against the bright lights within the debriefing room, aboard the Massive, the capital ship of his Almighty Tallest. It had only been an hour since he was interrupted from his PAK maintenance cycle, after his victory on the planet Gorn. The Tallest had personally requested to debrief him on his mission, meaning he was either in big trouble, or they had an important mission for him.

The automatic door behind him opened, and a few seconds later, Almighty Tallest Purple and Almighty Tallest Red walked into view on the other side of the table. Zims chair fell backwards as he jumped to rapt attention, eyes straight ahead, awaiting orders from his superiors. The Tallest stood there for a moment, looked at each other, and proceeded to laugh hysterically, finally gasping out, "At ease, Zim," inbetween laughing fits.

Zim picked up his chair and sat before them, confused at the informal approach that the debriefing had taken. As their laughing subsided, they returned their gaze to Zim. By far he was smallest they had seen, even by average Irken standards. However, if the accounts within the file displayed on their Pad were true, then they'd have to look upon him in a new light.

"So, Zim, tell us why you were sent to Gorn," said Almighty Tallest Purple, getting the debriefing underway.

"My Tallest! I was sent to Gorn in order to infiltrate the sentient tree-dwelling inhabitants culture in order to lay the groundwork necessary for the successful invasion of the planet. The weaklings scattered before the glory of Irken Might, that was ZIM!" he recounted, being sure to emphasize on the weakness of the native species.

"Yes, the Gornians were indeed weaklings," concurred Almighty Tallest Purple," can you elaborate on the groundwork you did to prepare for the Armada?"

Zim thought for a moment before continuing with his Mission Report, "It took a standard half-week in order to gather the necessary information to find the key weaknesses in their defense grid. I then proceeded to pulvarize their primitive systems and incite civil unrest within the population, contributing to the panic and confusion when the invasion began."

The Tallest glanced down at their Pad as the Lie detection software analyzed his words, to their surprise, it gave them the green light. They whispered back and forth to one another for a few minutes. Finally, after the matter was settled, they returned their attention to Zim. "After analyzing several other reports on the mission, including those of your immediate Tallers and eye-witness accounts of the new slave populace, we're inclined to believe that you are telling us the truth of what happened."

Zim was rather confused now, "You doubt my reports?!"

"Well, the accomplishments in the file were extremely noteworthy, and as such, we had to verify the authenticity of your mission reports alongside the Mission Logs, to ensure it was really you that made all this happen," Almighty Tallest Red explained, as if he should understand why they had to go through these steps.

Zim frowned. "You think I could not accomplish these feats of Irken Awesomeness?"

The Tallest looked at each other again, then back at Zim, "Because you are so very tiny, Zim. Even tinier than Skoodge!" Almighty Tallest Purple began, and at the crestfallen expression now coming from Zim, he continued, "But fear not! Your truthfulness has been realized and, despite your height, you've proven yourself a very capable Invader."

Zim liked the sound of that. Everybody knew that the Tallest weren't kind just for the sake of being kind. He got the feeling that there was another reason that they wanted to debrief him. "Is there something you wanted from me?"

The Tallest pulled up a file on their Pad sent to them by the Control Brains specifically for Zim. The screen was black as they handed it him, and as he looked at the screen, a green light flashed, and the Pad stated, "Identity confirmed: Invader Zim. Clearance granted."

Files opened and pictures flowed across the screen. It was mainly anomolies detected within spatial data charts over the course of the past week, at the edges of known space. Long range scans showed that a signal sweep was attempted at 21:15, followed by a wildly strong scan that reached Conventia at 21:37. "Somebody was foolish enough to scan us?!" he exclaimed.

"Yes, Zim, and we don't know who that someone is, as none of our scouts have ever gone out that far. The scan only lasted ten seconds, coming to an abrupt stop before we could try to get a lock on its signal," began Purple, and at a 'go ahead' gesture from Red, "and so we need somebody to investigate the origins of the scan. If the perpetrators of this act show themselves as a military threat or a potential source of resources, then you will receive the green light to begin preparations for a full scale invasion."

Zim nodded, feeling that his moment had finally come. However, this didn't sound like an assignment typical of an Irken Invader. "Why not just invade this pitiful planet outright?"

"Because the planet is so far away, Zim. We don't want to have to mobilize the Armada unless it's absolutely necessary," Red stated, "however, even if our military presence was requested, it would take the Armada a few years to reach the target planets sytem."

It made sense, so Zim didn't push the issue any further. He understood that, perhaps in this battle, distance would be the greatest enemy. "I understand, My Tallest, when am I to begin?"

Both of the Almighty Tallest looked at the Time Unit on the wall, then back to Zim, "Your ship is waiting for you in Hangar Bay 241B, along with an experimental SIR unit, you're set to depart in half an hour."

Zim hurriedly jumped up, snapped a crisp salute to his Tallest, and dashed out of the room, towards the elevators. The purple walls of The Massive's corridors flashed by until he skidded to a halt in front of the row of fifteen elevators. As he stepped into the first one available, he commanded, "Elevator, take me to Hangar Bay 241B."

As the elevator began to rapidly descend to the Hangar Bays, Zim paced back and forth restlessly, not able to calm down. "Finally! The mission may proceed!" he screamed as he arrived at his floor. Moving off toward the docking area, he saw his ship come into view, in all it's mission-y glory. "Do not waylay Zim! I have been given orders from the Tallest themselves! You dare defy them?" He said, shouting down the docking authorities who stood in his way.

They stepped aside as he proceeded forward, finally arriving at the entrance to his newly requisitioned ship. As he stepped onto the metal ramp leading inside, a SIR unit appeared, eyes glowing red and stating, "GIR, reporting for duty!"

Zim cocked his head to one side, "GIR? What does that 'G' stand for?"

"I don't know." came the reply from the now blue-eyed unit, and it proceeded to run through the ship screaming something about waffles.

Shaking his head, Zim made a mental note to take a look at the Artificial intelligence chip in the units headpiece. He strapped himself into his seat in the cockpit of his new Spittle Runner and performed all of his pre-flight checks. Satisfied, he fired up the fusion engines and flew out into the vastness of space, plugging in the estimated coordinates of the signals point of origin, and proceeded on his six month journey to the far away planet.

The sensor array in front of the boy beeped wildly for the first time since it was created, four years ago. Dib could scarcely believe his ears. He hurriedly jammed the headphones onto his head, ready to finally hear the proof he's been waiting for all these years.

In all twelve years of his life, Dib couldn't remember ever not pursuing all things paranormal. From Bigfoot to the Chupacabra, he's spent all of his free time searching for everything that lays outside of the worlds view of "normal." Investigating every single UFO or alien sighting that he hears of, the need for proof is as tangible for him now as it would ever be.

As the headphones slid into place over his ears, he began to hear the chatter of several alien life forms, although he couldn't make out a single word that was uttered. Even so, he flipped on the recorder to document his newfound proof so that he may analyze it later to confirm its extraterrestrial origins and attempt to glean any kind of understanding of what was said.

Satisfied that he now had indisputable proof, he turned off the Audio Signal Sweeper, and began, instead, to use the Visual Sensor Array to attempt to find the source of the alien broadcast, after all, if he could take pictures, then his argument would be even more solid. As the array re-booted to load up all the enhancement software necessary to update his digital telescope, Dib gazed into the eyepiece, searching for a distant star to identify as the source of his discovery.

The blackness of space swallowed his vision, with the billions of stars the only thing alighting the path to his ocular destination. At that precise moment, however, a massive power fluctuation surged through the telescopes systems, boosting the signal and magnification to 17,000 times the original output, granting a ten second view of the largest collection of space ships the twelve-year-old boy had ever seen.

Shocked at the sight, he stumbled backwards, losing his footing and tumbling off the roof. He grabbed out at the drainpipe that ran along the side of the building and used his momentum to swing himself through the open kitchen window, landing with a large splash into the kitchen sink. The thoroughly soaked boy climbed from the now empty sink, stating the only conclusion that he could come to, "They're coming!"

"Who's coming?" asked Gaz, his little sister, who had been in the middle of rummaging through the fridge in search of the last soda.

"I don't know..." came his ominous reply, as he stared out into the night sky.