I tore through the vacuum of deep space at faster-than-light speeds, my body a searing streak of white-hot energy across the cosmos. Decelerating abruptly, I dropped out of my warp-flight and immediately slammed into the chaotic gravity well of Sector Four.
It was an absolute warzone. Burning Coalition supply ships littered the orbital space above a massive, wild-looking planet. From orbit, the world looked completely uninhabitable—a violently churning gas giant covered in swirling, toxic-looking purple and grey hurricanes. It was the perfect natural camouflage to hide the lush, breathable surface and the massive Coalition foundries hidden beneath the clouds.
But now, that camouflage was illuminated by the relentless flash of plasma fire.
I scanned the debris field with my enhanced vision, filtering out the exploding frigates until I spotted the main perpetrators. A few miles away, suspended above the planet's atmospheric shelf, Nolan, Oliver, and a battalion of Coalition soldiers were fighting for their lives.
They were being pushed to their absolute limits, completely surrounded by a massive, overwhelming force of heavily armed alien conscripts and three elite Viltrumites: General Kregg, Anissa, and a massive, burly, scar-faced soldier.
The Viltrumites were mildly bruised, but faring very well through practiced coordination. My family and the Coalition soldiers, on the other hand, were faring much worse.
Nolan was bleeding heavily, his uniform torn in places from desperately trying to cover Oliver. Speaking of Oliver, he wasn't doing any better. His breathing became ragged as he barely dodged a heavy plasma blast.
I watched as the burly Viltrumite found an opening. He raised his massive fists, clasping them together to deliver a fatal double-hammer blow directly down onto Oliver's exposed spine.
I instantly narrowed my trajectory and burst forward.
I aimed a strike at the burly Viltrumite's ribs. The impact hit like a meteor, sending the massive warrior rocketing backward, crashing violently into Kregg, a dozen alien conscripts, and Anissa, who had all been moving in to assist in jumping Nolan.
The collision created a massive gap of separation between the two forces and instantly froze the entire battlefield.
I floated in the space between my battered family and the recovering Viltrumites. My suit visibly shifted as the stored solar energy began to disperse evenly throughout my body. The glowing 'I' insignia on my chest flared with blinding, white-hot intensity.
"Aye, you good?" I communicated to Oliver mentally.
All he could do was nod his head, as he stared at me with wide, disbelieving eyes, before I turned my attention back to the enemy force.
"What in the—Mark Grayson?!" Kregg's voice transmitted directly into my mind, his single eye widening in genuine shock.
It always feels weird having someone speak to you in your mind, I thought briefly.
I watched him push debris off his shoulder, and gain an expression that told me he was having a hard time believing it was actually me.
I guess it makes sense, I thought, watching him analyze my shifting suit. I look significantly larger and stronger than when he had last seen me broken on Thraxa. I was also entirely uninjured despite having just faced Conquest—an encounter that should have left me dead or permanently maimed. And if that wasn't bad enough, I was physically radiating an enormous amount of visible power, something no Viltrumite biology should allow.
His reaction was interesting to say the least, but it was Anissa's reaction that caught my eye.
When our eyes met, her reaction was entirely visceral. Instead of the condescending, arrogant sneer she had worn on Earth, she stared at me with rapt attention. Her eyes slowly traced the glowing circuitry of my suit—how the nanites reacted and flowed like moving stars against the blackness of space—before taking in the sheer, suffocating pressure of my aura.
She's staring a little too hard, I noted internally, seeing a predatory, almost fascinated grin spread slowly across her lips.
"You only get two options," I projected, my voice cold and authoritative. "Retreat right now and live to see another day. Or continue in the name of your weak Empire, and suffer the consequences."
Kregg's face contorted with fury. "You dare beseech the name of our glorious Empire?!"
"I do. What's gonna happen?" I responded, fists clenched.
"Then perish where you are!" he roared, then signaled to the armada. "Kill the traitor and his pathetic whelps!"
The massive force of hundreds of alien conscripts raised their weapons—heavy, shoulder-mounted plasma cannons. Moving in practiced unison, squads of four physically interlocked their rifles together. The magnetic couplings slammed shut, merging their individual weapon cores to create massive, singular beam-emitters. The heavy hum of their power cells vibrated through the vacuum, taking precious seconds to charge to critical mass.
"Mark, what're you doing?! Lookout!" Oliver roared looking at the massive line of beams that would soon be unleashed upon me.
"Mark, he's right. What are you thinking!" Nolan said, watching with widened eyes as I didn't even make an attempt to block the incoming attacks. "There's too many of them, you can't—"
"Hey, Old Man," I cut him off and pointed a thumb at Oliver. "You mind grabbing him and taking him down to the planet? He looks like he's gonna keel over at any time."
Nolan looked at the casualness of my demeanor in this situation with utter disbelief. He was about to project something else until he saw the lack of uncertainty in my eyes. He hesitated for a fraction of a second before ultimately grabbing a protesting Oliver and flying towards the planet.
As they flew away, I felt a grim satisfaction. Good. They're finally leaving, I thought, my eyes narrowing at Anissa and Kregg. Because what I'm about to do to these guys might be deemed as cruel in most dimensions.
The conjoined cannons finally reached critical mass and fired. Dozens of massive, searing pillars of plasma shot out at me with incredible speed.
I continued to hover completely still as the blinding heat washed over me. The nanites in my suit absorbed the energy instantly, converting it into raw, crackling power. After a few relentless seconds, the weapons overheated and the beam fire sputtered and died out.
As the smoke cleared, I was left hovering in the exact same spot, completely unharmed, my suit glowing like a miniature sun.
The expressions on the Viltrumites' faces were priceless. Kregg's lone eye twitched in disbelief, while the burly Viltrumite's jaw practically went slack.
"Is that all?" I projected into their minds, my mental voice dripping with condescension. "Let me show you what true power looks like."
I raised my hands, transferring the massive amount of collected energy from the volley directly into my palms. I held them forward and released a devastating energy wave that tore through the vacuum, violently pushing the Viltrumites and the entire conscript force miles backward. The concussive wall of force instantly shattered the heavy weapons the aliens were holding.
Taking full advantage of the massive opening I just created, the remaining Coalition soldiers rallied. They surged forward in a coordinated counter-attack, unleashing a barrage of suppressive fire that completely pinned down the disoriented alien conscripts.
When Kregg and the other Viltrumites stabilized themselves, I could tell by the looks on their faces that they were fundamentally confused. Seeing me manipulate raw energy without throwing a punch had completely unsettled them.
I didn't give them time to fully recover. In an instant, I dashed forward, blurring through a line of conscripts, severing their life support and tearing through their ranks. They tried to fire their regular rifles, but I was moving too fast for them to track.
The burly Viltrumite roared, trying to intercept my flight pattern. He threw a massive haymaker while I was busy dealing with two conscripts.
Without looking at him, I casually caught his fist. His eyes widened in shock as the kinetic force died completely on impact. I yanked him violently toward me and rocked him with a brutal right cross to the jaw. Before he could float away from the impact, I pulled him back in and delivered another bone-shattering punch straight into his nose.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Nolan and Oliver flying back up from the planet's atmosphere—looking a tad more stabilized.
Ah, so they've recovered, I thought. I grabbed the burly, stunned Viltrumite by his face and hurled him like a baseball directly towards them. Nolan immediately uppercutted him, while Oliver tagged him with various punches.
Kregg tried to intervene, but I blurred into his path and rocked him with a heavy left hook.
"Did..." I grunted, driving a knee into his stomach. "...you..." I followed up with a vicious elbow to his jaw. "...forget..." I spun, landing a heavy kick to his ribs. "...what..." I grabbed him by his collar, headbutting him square in the nose. "...you did..." I drove a brutal palm strike into his chest. "...to me..." I hit him with a rapid-fire combination to his face. "...on..." I finished with a devastating uppercut. "...Thraxa?!"
Kregg was sent reeling, spitting blood and teeth. He attempted to fight back, but I easily countered and overpowered his every movement.
Then, my enhanced senses caught a blur moving directly toward my blind spot. I casually kicked Kregg away just as Anissa's fist brushed past my cheek, missing me by a millimeter.
She stabilized herself a few yards away, her chest heaving slightly.
"Well look at you, Mark Grayson," She transmitted, her voice practically purring with dark amusement. "I remember when you were nothing more than a fragile, weeping boy on that backwater planet. I beat you down so easily, and made you realize just how far beneath me you were."
"And now?" I asked coldly, hovering perfectly still.
"Now?" Her grin widened, her eyes gleaming with the anticipation of violence. "Now, you might actually be worth my time."
"Then what'cha waiting for?" I questioned, beckoning her towards me.
She wasted no time and rushed me, throwing a blindingly fast straight punch. I tilted my head, dodging it effortlessly. She pivoted instantly, attempting a vicious backfist. I ducked under it.
"Spinning elbow… falling hammer fist… right cross…" I called out, weaving around her flurry of strikes.
I dodged a knee strike from her and reached out to snap the neck of a conscript that entered our fight path without even looking.
"Your left uppercuts always drop your right shoulder lower than you want them to," I noted casually, swaying backward as her fist passed through empty space.
Anissa's predatory smile vanished, replaced by sheer disbelief and rising frustration. "How dare you mock me!" she yelled. "How do you even know all this?!"
She lunged forward, putting everything she had into a devastating center-line strike.
I effortlessly parried her arm, stepping inside her guard. With my free hand, I delivered a devastating palm-strike directly into her ribs. The bone cracked audibly. Before she could recover, I grabbed her arm, twisted it, and pinned it behind her back, locking her in place.
"After you left Earth," I projected to her, making sure she heard every syllable, "I spent every waking moment studying you. Your fighting style. Your approach to psychology. And how to break you, and every other Viltrumite in the Empire."
She didn't respond but I could tell she was listening carefully by the way she suddenly stopped struggling in my grip.
"And it's all because of that moment with you," I continued. "You're going to be responsible for your precious Empire's downfall."
I tightened the lock on her arm and grabbed her neck with my other hand.
"What was it you told me?" I mocked. "I'm better than you, I'm faster than you, and you better believe I'm smarter than you."
I laughed at the lack of her struggle. "I want you to say it," I said, my grip on her neck getting firmer. "I want to hear it from you. I want you to admit how much better I am than you."
Anissa spat a wad of blood out into the vacuum. Then, she turned her head slightly to look at me. Instead of looking angry, humiliated, or upset, she looked absolutely thrilled.
Huh?! What the hell?! I thought, genuinely taken aback.
I narrowed my eyes. "Why the hell are you smiling?! You're not supposed to be looking happy right now! Cut that out!"
Anissa leaned back against my hold. Her physical body shuddered slightly from the exertion, and the mental projection of her voice felt ragged—yet it was dripping with ecstasy.
"Because I don't think you understand how much I'm enjoying this," she rasped, causing me to look at her in disbelief. "You aren't as pathetic as that planet was making you out to be. You're truly one of a kind. Show me more! Show me what else you can do!"
Ah, right, she's one of those, I thought, still trying to process her words. I forgot what kind of deviant she was.
Before I could react, the battlefield dynamics shifted violently.
Kregg, realizing with absolute certainty that they couldn't defeat me in a physical confrontation, made a ruthless tactical pivot. I watched as he issued a rapid-fire command to the remaining fleet ships above.
The massive dreadnoughts instantly shifted their positioning. Their sub-light engines vibrated through the vacuum as they locked their heavy bombardment cannons directly onto Oliver's coordinates.
Nolan, seeing this, immediately abandoned the burly Viltrumite he was pummeling and tried to fly toward Oliver. But Kregg had anticipated that. He and the burly Viltrumite launched a synchronized blitz, intercepting Nolan mid-flight and hitting him simultaneously from both sides. A brutal elbow from Kregg cracked across Nolan's temple, knocking him completely unconscious. The burly Viltrumite restrained him in seconds.
I struck Anissa in the back of the head, knocking her unconscious, and tossed her aside in an attempt to surge toward them.
"Fire!" Kregg ordered, commanding his fleet to act quickly.
The dreadnoughts unleashed a continuous, blinding column of concentrated orbital plasma directly at an exhausted Oliver.
Time seemed to slow down. I had a split-second choice: stop Kregg from taking Nolan, or save Oliver from being vaporized.
Tch, damn! I cursed, violently shifting my trajectory and abandoning my pursuit of Kregg.
I moved faster than the blasts, diving directly over Oliver. I planted my feet against the atmospheric resistance, bracing myself as I covered him from the incoming fire. The continuous column of plasma smashed into me, face-first.
The heat was intense. My suit flared with a blinding white light, absorbing the continuous, roaring stream of plasma. But because it was an ongoing beam, I was entirely rooted to the spot. If I moved even an inch to chase after Kregg, the beam would incinerate Oliver.
Using the distraction he had brilliantly engineered, Kregg and the burly Viltrumite grabbed Nolan's unconscious body, flew into one of the command ships, and jumped to hyperspace in a flash of blue light, completely abandoning a majority of his conscript army and Anissa to whatever fate awaited them.
I glared at the empty space where Kregg's ship had vanished, anger boiling over. You've got to be shitting me, I thought.
I could feel my suit hitting the limit for the amount of continuous energy It could take in and distribute to the nanites within me at one time.
"Oliver, brace yourself," I communicated to him. "This might sting a little."
"What will—"
BOOOOOOOOOM!
He couldn't even finish what he was trying to say. I had unleashed an omnidirectional blast of the energy that was continuously streaming into me. The feedback of the shockwave was enormous. It instantly vaporized the majority of the nearby conscripts and completely shredded the dreadnought firing the beam above us, turning the massive warship into a cloud of expanding slag and scraps.
But the sheer, concussive blowback of the explosion had a severe cost. The raw physical force threw the heavily wounded Oliver, as well as Anissa—who had been caught in the outer edge of my blast radius—violently downward.
They breached the atmospheric shelf, caught in the heavy, violent gravitational pull of the planet below.
The orbital battlefield was crumbling into ash around me. I glanced one last time at the direction where Kregg had taken Nolan, wondering if the Viltrumites actually planned on destroying the supply lines at all or if this was just another elaborate plan to split us all up.
Then, I remembered who was still falling into the planet's atmosphere, turned, and dove straight down into the purple-looking surface, pushing my speed enough to catch Oliver and Anissa before they burned up on reentry.
They were burned from the impact of my blast and entering the planet that quickly, but they were alive. Something I couldn't say about Nolan if we didn't find a way back to Talescria in time.