Eve's clinical voice echoed through the main hall of the Universe Destroyer. She addressed the endless legions of mechanized infantry and Planet Orion recruits over the intercom.
"To all Planet Orion personnel. The atmosphere of Planet Xyroth is lethally toxic. Equip your specialized breathing apparatuses immediately."
Black masks plummeted from the ceiling of the colossal ship. They resembled the plague masks of ancient eras, descending upon the soldiers like a flock of dead ravens.
The warship closed in on its target. Planet Xyroth.
It was a suffocating sphere of toxins and rusted metal. Hundreds of thousands of scrap mountains blanketed the surface. At its core stood a towering spire pierced by seven windows—The Monolithic Tower.
The Universe Destroyer eclipsed the horizon. It cast a terrifying, absolute shadow over the entire junk planet.
Drop pods rained from the sky. They carried the Orion infantry and cybernetic units, crashing violently into the crust of Planet Xyroth.
The army deployed. They faced an endless wasteland of jagged scrap metal. Thick clouds of chemical smoke choked out the sky.
Puddles of black oil stained the ground. It was an offensive, repulsive landscape.
Finally, the colossal imperial drop pod slammed into the earth. It landed long after the vanguard.
White steam hissed from the heavy doors. The Emperor and his wives emerged into the toxic wasteland.
The Emperor and the majority of his wives wore no masks. Their raw Aether repelled the poison. Only Oria and General Madi Roll kept their respirators secured.
"Nyaa."
Nixia purred softly at the Emperor's boots. She blinked lazily, playing the part of a sleepy, harmless cat.
The Emperor scanned the desolate landscape. His golden eyes swept left and right, burning with absolute authority.
"This place does not satisfy my pride in the slightest. Erasing it would be a mercy. Tch." He scoffed, his tone dripping with supreme arrogance.
"Ah... Emperor, where are we going now?" Oria asked softly. She pressed an innocent index finger to her cheek.
A split second later, a massive soundwave ruptured the silence. It shook the very crust of Planet Xyroth, echoing directly from the seven-windowed obelisk!
"Kyahahahahahahaha!"
The maniacal laughter screeched from the top of the tower.
"I suppose we are not going anywhere. They are coming to us," the Emperor answered Oria. He locked his gaze on the black spire.
"Countless invaders have tried to challenge us! But this is a first. Look at these little children terrified of a little planetary exhaust! What, are you scared you might cough? Kyahahaha!"
That grating voice and vulgar sarcasm were instantly recognizable. The Emperor and his wives had extracted this data from the minds of the fallen Xyroth scouts. They knew exactly who was speaking.
"Is the barking of this annoying hound the absolute limit of Aristotle's strategy? How disappointing," the Emperor sneered.
"Kyahahaha! Let Aristotle polish his silver ass inside!" Diogenes barked back. The rusted cyborg showed zero respect for the Emperor's crushing aura.
"I came out here because I wanted to see the joke for myself! A fake Emperor landing in a shiny ship, dragging a bunch of decorated plastic dolls behind him to play conqueror. Kyahahaha!"
Thick veins of rage bulged on Isabella's forehead. Her camera drones vibrated erratically around her. She absorbed the direct, vulgar insult to her flawless aesthetic and her fellow wives.
But Diogenes did not stop. He doubled down on his savagery.
"Tell me, you stylish little tyrant! What will your perfect wives look like when their soft skin melts in my oil swamps? Will they stay that pretty when I recycle their meat to make a handle for my hammer? I can smell your rot from here!"
Dead silence fell over the wasteland.
The temperature plummeted. A suffocating pressure of pure Axiom crushed the planet's gravity. The mountains of scrap metal groaned, flattening under the sheer weight of the Emperor's rage.
The Emperor raised his eyes toward the tower. He spoke in a dangerously calm tone—a cosmic death sentence.
"I was going to erase you like the rest of this scrap. But now... I will make your slow dismantling a practical lesson. I will show every machine in this universe what happens when they dare overstep their bounds."
Diogenes roared, his rusted vocal cords rattling across the ruins. He threw his arms toward the toxic sky.
"Then try it, Emperor! But your precious beauties are about to be ripped right out of your hands!"
His maniacal scream tore through the atmosphere.
"Do it! Now, Pythagoras!"
Pythagoras's hands ignited with a blinding white light. He thrust them toward the sky.
The catastrophe triggered instantly.
The entire planet convulsed beneath the boots of the Imperial vanguard.
"What is happening?! What is this?!" Roxy roared, her voice laced with savage fury.
Eve's glasses flared with rapid data streams. "Unknown. Highest probability: the absolute law of the Fourth Philosopher."
Razor-sharp geometric constructs materialized from the void. A colossal holographic wall erupted from the crust, violently slicing the battlefield in two.
The Emperor stared coldly at the other side.
"Emperor! No!" Oria cried out. She desperately stretched her hand toward him just as the geometric barrier swallowed his silhouette.
The impossible geometry began to scatter the Imperial forces.
Nixia launched herself from the Emperor's boots. Before her paws struck the earth, the geometric grid shattered open. The glowing chasm devoured the beast and Veronica whole.
Kaori exhaled, gripping the hilt of her blade. She prepared to unleash a Resonance slash to shatter the constructs. Instantly, a mirrored cubic chamber materialized around her, locking her in total isolation.
Camille and Eve stood side-by-side. The metallic crust violently ruptured beneath them. A colossal pillar shot upward, violently forcing them into separate geometric cells.
A glowing neon triangle lunged to consume Celine and Oria. Roxy threw herself recklessly into the trap, grabbing both of them. The polygon collapsed, erasing all three from the battlefield.
Only three remained in the fractured sector. The Emperor. Isabella. General Madi Roll.
A massive geometric cylinder erupted directly beneath the Emperor's boots. It launched him skyward, elevating him alone toward the Monolithic Tower.
Isabella whipped her head around. Thick veins of fury pulsed on her flawless forehead. She was trapped in this wasteland with only the mechanical General.
"By the Emperor!" Isabella screeched in absolute hysteria. "Out of the entire imperial vanguard, why am I stuck with you?!"
"It is a crushing military disgrace," General Madi Roll replied, his synthetic voice heavy with tactical grief. "I should have built a wall of infantry flesh around the Emperor before the isolation protocol triggered. I failed to even bow before our separation."
The Vanguard was now entirely cut off from the main command network. Left leaderless in a sprawling metallic basin, the Orion infantry faced the surviving swarms of the Junk Race. The Xyroth forces had taken heavy casualties from the initial drop, leveling the bloody playing field.
Deep within the canyon of rusted scrap, Isabella and General Madi Roll surveyed the ruin. The suffocating stench of rotting oil choked the air.
"My camera drones are gone..." Isabella whispered, her eyes trembling with panic. "Fighting in this repulsive lighting with only my internal Dogma reserves will be excruciating."
Suddenly, shadows shifted in the junk piles. Rusted cybernetic hounds crawled into the open. They circled the duo, snapping their metallic jaws with a grating, screeching bark.
"Repulsive!" Isabella screamed, throwing her hands up in absolute disgust. "What is this visual filth?!"
Atop a mound of corrosive waste, a grotesque figure squatted. He was an emaciated, rusted cyborg clad in tattered rags. In his oil-stained hand, he dangled a small, fully plucked biological chicken.
"Look!" the cyborg howled with maniacal laughter. "This is your glorious Emperor at the end of the war!"
They did not need to check the database. The repulsive vulgarity was signature.
It was Diogenes. The Cynic Hound himself.