It took a little over half a day of space travel, but we finally managed to reach the coordinates.
The Empire's staging ground wasn't on any planet. It was on a massive, hollowed-out rogue moon that looked like a giant asteroid, drifting in the dead of space between sectors. Surrounding it was a heavily fortified grid of Empire dreadnoughts and orbital defense cannons.
Normally, navigating a ship through that kind of blockade would be suicide. But luckily—or perhaps unluckily for us—we had Anissa.
"Adjust your vector by three degrees, Unopan," she called out from her restraints, acting as our begrudging navigator. "There is a forty-second blind spot in the sensor grid coming up on the dark side of the moon. Dock against the unfinished ventilation shaft there, unless you'd prefer to be vaporized."
Following her exact instructions, Allen guided the ship silently against the metallic surface of the base.
I stood up from the co-pilot seat and walked over to her, making sure her shackles were fully active. We were leaving her here on the ship, eliminating the risk of losing a captive with high-level intel if things went sideways while we attempted to get Nolan.
"Comfortable?" I asked tauntingly. "Don't worry, we'll be back with my dad before you even know it."
"Enjoy the family reunion, Warden," she responded, looking up at me with a knowing smile stretching across her face. "Assuming you survive the tour, of course."
I ignored the bait, but my eyes narrowed.
She's too calm and smug about things, I thought, eyes not leaving hers for the moment. Something's definitely going to pop off. But what? An appearance from Thragg? An ambush from all their forces?
I broke the impromptu staring contest and shook my head to clear the never-ending assumptions.
There's only one way to find out now, I thought, sighing. "Let's move," I said, turning to Allen.
We breached the base's outer hull and entered a dimly lit corridor. According to Anissa's instructions, we needed to reach the central detention block, and we needed to do it without tripping the alarms.
As we made our way through the base, it didn't take long for us to run into some resistance. Two Viltrumite officers, along with a dozen alien conscripts, were patrolling the sector ahead. Allen tensed at the potentially chaotic situation, but I brought out a small device that quickly put him at ease.
"Get ready," I said, readying to spring towards the Viltrumite officers with the device. "It's gonna happen very quickly."
I blurred forward, moving far too fast for the conscripts to track, and pressed my palms against the side of the unaware Viltrumite officers' heads. I activated the high-frequency sonic disruptors directly into their ears.
Their eyes rolled into the backs of their heads and they crumpled silently to the floor. The conscripts barely had time to raise their rifles before Allen and I knocked them completely unconscious.
Heh, that went quicker than I thought, I noted internally, looking down at the devices in my hands.
We navigated deeper into the facility, crawling through the cramped, metallic ventilation shafts following the internal schematics Anissa had provided, until we reached the space directly above the high-security detention block.
"He should be right below us," I whispered to Allen.
I carefully placed my hands against the reinforced grating. Using controlled strength, I silently pried the metal free and set it aside, allowing us to drop quietly into the holding cell without triggering any door sensors.
But to our surprise, the cell was completely empty.
"Where is he?!" Allen questioned, looking around the bare space.
"I'm not sure," I responded, my muscles instantly coiling with tension as I scanned the room.
"If this is a trap, then it's the oddest one I've ever been in," he said, scratching the top of his head.
"Knowing her, it's very possible she sent us to the wrong cell," I replied. "She definitely loves to—"
I was cut off when the heavy blast doors slid open with a sharp hiss.
To the surprise of Allen and me, Nolan walked in wearing a crisp red and grey Viltrumite uniform. He had bandages around certain areas of his body, but he looked relatively healed from the brutal beating he had taken just a couple of days prior.
And he wasn't alone. He was walking side-by-side with General Kregg. My enhanced hearing easily picked up the tail-end of their conversation.
"The Empire will require more than just words," Kregg stated.
"I am fully aware of the Empire's expectations, General," Nolan replied calmly, his voice devoid of any distress. "If what you've told me is true then—"
His words were cut short when he saw Allen and me.
"Nolan?!" Allen called out with genuine bewilderment in his tone.
I lowered my guard, completely thrown off by the sight. "What the hell is going on?!" I questioned.
Nolan stopped in his tracks. His eyes widened for a fraction of a second in shock at seeing us, but he instantly recovered, his face hardening into a stoic mask.
"Mark, Allen," he said, his voice flat. "You got here quicker than we anticipated."
"Quicker than you—Dad, we're here to rescue you. Did they do something to your head?" I demanded, taking a step forward.
"No one has done anything to me," he responded firmly. He glanced at Kregg, who in return gave him a pointed look that caused him to let out a slow sigh. "The Coalition cannot win this war, Mark. Continuing down this path will only lead to the extinction of trillions."
"So your answer is to surrender to the ones that are the driving force of this potential extinction?!" I questioned, my voice laced with disbelief. "Thaedus and the Coalition have not been fighting this long and this hard just to stop here!"
"And where has that gotten them?!" Nolan questioned. "Thaedus is entirely too stubborn to come to terms with reality. But I'm not."
Allen's eye narrowed. "Nolan... what are you saying?"
"I haven't surrendered," Nolan declared. "I've just come to certain… terms with the Viltrumites."
"Such as?" I demanded.
"I've been… negotiating a ceasefire," he replied. "And things have been going… smoothly. All that truly needs to be done is to get things straightened out with the Coalition. And with your help, we can potentially end this war without further bloodshed."
What the fuck is he talking about?! I thought, my brain struggling to process the words. A ceasefire?! With Thragg of all people?! That's literally impossible! What's going on?!
"Dad, that's insane," I argued. "They've just nearly butchered a Coalition planet. There's no way there'd ever be any kind of truce. Why are you letting them play you like this?!"
I saw a flicker of deep conflict cross his eyes. It looked like he wanted to explain something vital, but before he could speak, Kregg stepped forward and placed a heavy hand on his shoulder. Kregg's lone eye locked onto him with a pointed glare.
"The time for talking is over," Kregg stated, fist raised. "It's time to prove your resolve to the Empire. We eliminate the Unopan, and subdue your child."
Nolan looked at me. His jaw clenched tightly. Then, without another word, he violently launched himself across the room, his fist aimed squarely at my face.
Oh shit, he's serious, I thought, dodging the strike.
Nolan's fist sailed past my ear. The force behind the swing cracked the reinforced wall behind me. As I refocused back on him, he spun and drove a vicious elbow toward my temple.
I brought my hand up, casually catching the blow. The impact sent a shockwave echoing through the detention block, but I didn't budge an inch as I absorbed the kinetic energy effortlessly.
"Pops, if this is all part of a plan you've cooked up, then you should let me know now," I said, shoving him back. "Because I'm confused as all hell right now, I ain't gonna lie to ya."
Nolan didn't respond. He pressed the assault, his face twisted in a mask of absolute focus. He threw a devastating combination of heavy hooks and knee strikes. I, on the other hand, simply wove around his attacks, easily sidestepping his blows and parrying the rest.
Across the room, Kregg had instantly engaged Allen, driving the massive Unopan through the side wall of the detention block in a shower of sparks and shattered metal. The heavy metallic footsteps of reinforcements were already echoing from the surrounding corridors.
Ah, great, I thought, slipping past a backfist. The entire base is waking up.
Nolan lunged again, this time feinting a high punch before sweeping low, aiming a strike directly at my knee to shatter the joint. I hovered a few inches off the ground, evading it entirely, and grabbed his wrist.
"We don't have time for this, are you really on their side?" I questioned. "Or is this a play? I need an answer."
Nolan ripped his arm free and immediately drove his fingers straight toward my throat in a lethal spear-hand strike.
My eyes widened slightly as I slapped his hand away. He isn't holding back. He's actually fighting to kill me.
Whether he was brainwashed or just fully committed to his performance, he was treating me like a hostile target. And with the alarms blaring and reinforcements on the way, letting the fight drag out was going to get Allen killed.
I don't know what's going on, but if it's like this, then so be it, I thought as I stopped in my tracks to counter his following attack.
Nolan threw a massive haymaker, putting all his strength behind the strike.
I raised my hand and caught his fist directly in my palm. The resulting shockwave blew out the reinforced glass observation windows above us, raining shards down on the metal floor.
I didn't move a millimeter.
Nolan's eyes widened in genuine shock at the raw, immovable strength I was displaying. Before he could react, I twisted his arm, stepped into his guard, and grabbed him by the neck.
I lifted him off his feet and effortlessly slammed him backward, pinning him tightly against the reinforced bulkhead. The metal buckled heavily under the pressure.
I raised my fist, fully prepared to knock him out cold and drag him back to the ship. But Nolan's entire demeanor suddenly shifted. His rigid, fighting posture vanished and he went completely limp in my grip.
"I am so incredibly proud of the man you've become, Mark," he whispered.
My eyes went wide. "What...?"
"Trust me... everything I'm doing right now is not just for the galaxy," he said. "It's for you, your brother, and your mother. Now hit me, and don't hold back."
Ah, so it was a play, I mused briefly.
"Do it!" Nolan hissed.
Shit, you don't gotta tell me twice, I thought, pulling back my fist.
I drove a devastating uppercut directly into his jaw. The impact was massive. Nolan was sent rocketing upward, crashing entirely through the heavy metallic ceiling and disappearing into the floor above in a cloud of twisted steel and debris.
Before I knew it, dozens of elite Viltrumite soldiers were pouring into the hallway, their weapons drawn.
"Allen, we gotta go!" I roared.
"Alright," he said, punching Kregg off him. "Back to the ship?"
"Yea, come on!" I yelled.
We burst through multiple walls leading towards the location where our ship was placed. But we immediately jerked to a halt when we reached the hangar bay area.
The stealth ship was secured and completely surrounded by a massive squad of heavily armed conscripts. They had already breached the hull. Anissa was being escorted down the boarding ramp, still in her sonic shackles. She paused, looking across the massive expanse of the bay, her eyes locking directly onto mine. That same smug, knowing smile stretched wider across her face.
Fuck, that's not good, I thought as I began to disperse solar energy throughout my body. If we fight them more reinforcements will definitely come, leading to Allen probably getting overwhelmed by their numbers, and the ship probably getting destroyed in the process anyways.
"Change of plans," I told Allen, grabbing him tightly by his harness. "Brace yourself."
"Brace myself?" he questioned. "For whaaaaaaa—"
I blasted directly through the exterior hull of the rogue moon, shattering the rock and metal, and exploded out into the vacuum of space. With Allen in tow, I pushed my speed well past the light barrier, leaving the staging ground, the armada, and Nolan far behind.
Hours later, back at the Coalition Foundry in Sector Four, the atmosphere in the secure communications room was suffocating. We stood in front of the console, transmitting Thaedus and Talia from Talescria.
We had just delivered the report.
Talia had her hands over her mouth in pure disbelief. "Nolan... he actually attacked you?"
Thaedus's face, however, did not show shock. It contorted with a cold, vindicated fury.
"He has shown his true colors," Thaedus declared, his voice echoing like a judge handing down a death sentence. "I warned you, Mark. You cannot trust a Viltrumite who hasn't shed their indoctrination. Nolan of Viltrum is officially a traitor to the Coalition. He will be treated as an enemy of the universe, no different than Thragg himself."
I didn't argue or try to defend him. I just stared blankly at the screen.
The transmission ended, plunging the room into a heavy silence. Allen patted me on the shoulder before leaving me completely alone in the dark room.
I sat down heavily in a metal chair, staring at my hands. There was a smear of Nolan's blood across my knuckles from that final punch.
"Everything I'm doing right now is for you, your brother, and your mother."
I replayed the message in my head a hundred times. He hadn't been brainwashed, I mused. He was just playing a role. But why? Why did he need Kregg and Thragg to believe he was loyal? And what the he is going on with Anissa?
The pieces slowly began to shift in my mind. What's the end goal? I contemplated.
I closed my eyes, realizing with absolute certainty that the board had just fundamentally changed in the most unexpected of ways.