I floated in the black void, my vision swimming, completely and utterly dazed. My brain was still trying to process the sheer, concussive violence of what had just happened.
My nanites within my suit were working overtime.
They were rapidly feeding my cells with backup solar radiation, furiously stitching together the massive thermal burns and deep tissue damage I had sustained from tanking the point-blank blast. The harsh, cold blackness of space was illuminated by the blinding, glowing white heat radiating off me.
As my head cleared, a strange but pleasant sensation began to wash over me.
I must have absorbed the thermal energy from the explosion, I realized, flexing my hands. A kinetic force of that magnitude could have nearly incapacitated me for some time, but the suit managed to absorb the bomb's feedback.
I was battered and slightly disoriented, but my solar reserves were overflowing.
I reoriented myself and looked out into the void. A vast distance away, the Otharis outpost was a ruined shell of its former glory. Massive chunks of the heavily fortified space station and shattered meteoroids from the surrounding asteroid belt were floating aimlessly.
Where's Battle Beast? I questioned internally, as plumes of frozen vapor and crystallized blood hung weightlessly in the wreckage of the overtaken station. He was still inside when the explosion kicked off, and he definitely didn't fly out.
I blurred into motion, blasting through the debris field toward what was left of the outpost. I navigated through floating steel girders and torn electrical wiring until I reached the remnants of the hangar bay.
Ah, there you are, I thought, finding the lion-man floating lifelessly amongst the wreckage.
He was surrounded by the mangled corpses of the three Viltrumites he had been bullying.
I quickly scanned the area and spotted our sleek Coalition drop-ship. Miraculously, it had been shielded by a massive piece of the docking bay's bulkhead and wasn't heavily damaged.
I grabbed the towering lion-man by his arm, dragging his massive, unconscious weight through the zero-gravity void, and forced the drop-ship's airlock open. I hauled him inside, slammed the hatch shut, and hit the emergency pressurization sequence.
As oxygen flooded the cabin, I grabbed an emergency rebreather mask from the wall and slapped it directly over his muzzle.
A few tense seconds passed. Then, Battle Beast's chest heaved. He sucked in a massive, ragged breath, his eyes snapping open. He ripped the mask off his face, coughing violently before his gaze locked onto me.
A deep, rumbling purr vibrated in his chest as a bloodstained grin spread across his face. "You survived," he said, sounding genuinely thrilled.
"It appears that way," I responded.
"I thought you had perished in the star-fire," he grunted, his deep voice raspy. He cracked his neck, completely unbothered by his near-death experience. "What a shame that would have been if you had fallen. I would have had to find my own way back."
Is that his way of saying he's glad I didn't die? I thought.
"Yea, well, someone had to drag your heavy ass out of the vacuum," I shot back, moving toward the pilot's console and aggressively typing into the comms system. "Next time, bring a helmet. And for the record, it'll take more than an oversized firecracker to take me out."
I routed the ship's emergency power to the long-range transmitter. A few seconds later, the console beeped, and a glowing blue hologram of Thaedus and Talia flickered to life in the center of the cockpit.
They looked incredibly tense, the stress practically radiating off their holographic forms.
"Mark!" Talia breathed, her shoulders dropping in a fraction of relief. "You're alive. What happened? The lines to Otharis went completely dark."
"The Viltrumites, led by Conquest, set a trap," I reported smoothly, keeping my voice entirely professional. "It turned out to be a suicide mission. They managed to bring down the outpost with a strategically placed set of fusion explosives."
Talia looked completely devastated, her hands dropping to the console.
"But you can cross Conquest off your nightmare list," I added. "I put him in the ground before the station blew. He's done."
Thaedus froze, a look of absolute shock washing over his face. His eyes widened with disbelief as he processed the fact that the Empire's most feared executioner had just been permanently removed from the board.
"Conquest is... dead?" he said, his shock quickly shifting into a calculating stare.
"Very much so," I confirmed. "But let's put that on the backburner for now. What's the damage to the network looking like?"
Talia shook off her shock and brought up a series of red-tinted holographic charts.
"The damage is catastrophic," she explained grimly. "With Otharis gone, we've lost all contact with the outer rim. Any rebellions we planned to spark have no way to coordinate, and we have no way to back them up. Viltrumite intercept squads could be massing right now, and we wouldn't see them."
I nodded, processing the information. "Any other issue?" I asked, noticing her hesitation.
"We've lost our safe hyperspace routing," Talia said, her voice tight with dread. "Without the relay's telemetry, our fleet jumps are blind. If we send Coalition ships into the outer rim, they could drop out of hyperspace directly into asteroid fields, or worse, directly into the path of Viltrumite blockades. We're completely bottlenecked."
Damn, I thought. Thragg and 'em know exactly how to move, huh?
"What about the other teams?" I asked. "Are things going smoothly with them?"
"They are," Talia nodded, a brief glimmer of pride in her voice. "Thanks to your sonic disruptors and solar grenades, Nolan, Oliver, Allen, and Zoe systematically dismantled their assigned sectors with zero casualties. But our window of advantage has already closed."
Thaedus stepped forward, his expression grave. "Because of the Data Twin's leak, Thragg is fully aware of your family's involvement in the war, as well as your survival. He knows you are hunting his soldiers."
"And he isn't waiting around to let us formulate countermeasures," Talia added, pulling up a deeply unsettling tactical map. "We managed to spot massive Viltrumite fleet movements pushing into the outer rim just before Otharis fell. Thragg wants to attack while we're in this volatile state. He's recalling Viltrumites that are further away from the Empire and sending them to lock down the sectors around Talescria."
"He wants to push the Coalition inwards and strike in one fell swoop," I realized.
"Precisely," Thaedus responded. "He intends to surround us and breach through our defenses. And if he's confident that he could do so… then I'm afraid that he's gotten a proper layout of Talescria's defensive weak points. And that would lead to—"
"The whole operation collapsing," I deduced, my eyes widening slightly.
I stared at the red dots swarming the map. If nothing was done soon, then the Coalition would probably be slaughtered before the next day even hit, I thought.
"Don't send any major fleets out," I said, breaking my internal musings.
Thaedus frowned. "Mark, we cannot simply do nothing. The outer rim—"
"I didn't say we'd be doing nothing," I interrupted. I gestured between myself and the massive lion-man sitting behind me. "I'm saying Battle Beast and I will split up and handle the outer rim. We let Thragg believe everything's going according to his plans, and shut down the most volatile outer rim sectors ourselves before Talescria gets pushed in."
Talia looked at the chart, her mind working quickly. "A two-man team against entire fleets... It's highly unorthodox, but given your capabilities, it could work."
"Exactly," I nodded. "But there's one more thing. Tell the other teams to keep doing exactly what they've been doing. Don't pull them back, and don't change their routes."
"But if Thragg is advancing, leaving them out there is a risk," Thaedus argued.
"If my dad and Allen suddenly change their patterns and fall back, Thragg will instantly know we've figured out his pincer movement," I explained. "We need to use them as decoys. If they stay the course, Thragg will think his plan is working. He'll focus all his attention inward on Talescria and the main strike teams, completely blind to the fact that me and big purr are tearing his soldiers to shreds from behind."
Thaedus and Talia exchanged a long, heavy look. The logic was sound, even if it was ruthless.
"Very well," Thaedus finally agreed, his holographic form standing taller. "We will transmit the coordinates for the most volatile sectors to the ship's navigation system."
"Alright, just display my assigned sectors on the console screen," I said, stepping up to the dashboard. "I'll memorize the stellar routes. I'm flying solo. Battle Beast needs the ship."
Battle Beast raised a brow. "You intend to traverse the cosmos under your own power?"
"That's right. I'm more than capable enough to handle myself," I said, burning the route into my memory in a matter of seconds. Then, I locked in the ship's autopilot settings for his route. "So try not to crash the ship. I'd hate to have to come searching for you after the war."
Battle Beast gave a deep, rumbling chuckle, his eyes flashing with a predatory thrill. "Focus on your own survival, fledgling. If you fall to these weak soldiers before our duel, I will hunt your spirit in the afterlife."
"I'll keep that in mind," I smirked.
The airlock hissed open, exposing me to the silent, starry expanse of deep space. I blasted out of the hangar, leaving the drop-ship to jump into hyperspace.
Traveling through the vacuum of space without a ship was usually a quiet, meditative experience. But right now, I was burning through the cosmos like a comet, my mind running through endless tactical simulations.
Within a short amount of time, I dropped out of lightspeed as I breached the perimeter of my assigned outer-rim sector.
My eyes immediately narrowed.
A colossal Viltrumite Dreadnought hung in low orbit directly over a heavily populated, ringed planet. However, it wasn't deploying landing crafts or broadcasting terms of surrender across the planetary comms. Instead, the atmosphere beneath the massive vessel was violently parting. An array of heavy plasma rings was aligning along the ship's underbelly, drawing in a blinding, concentrated vortex of destructive energy that aimed directly at the continent below.
Oh shit! They're charging up a bombardment cannon, I realized in surprise. They aren't trying to conquer these worlds anymore. They're trying to deny resources to the Coalition.
I blurred forward, closing the thousands of miles in a fraction of a second, and smashed directly through the dreadnought's heavily armored hull like a bullet through wet paper.
The internal pressure of the ship shrieked, and the sheer kinetic force of my entry violently threw off the dreadnought's alignment, causing the cannons to barely miss hitting a populated area of the planet. I landed in the center of the main command bridge.
The room was packed. Dozens of heavily armed aliens—conscripts forced to fight for the Empire—stumbled back in shock. Standing at the helm, looking down at me with absolute fury, was a single Viltrumite commanding officer.
"Intruder!" the officer exclaimed, his mustache twitching with rage. "Kill him!"
The alien conscripts raised their energy rifles, aiming to put an end to me but I was already counter-attacking.
I should avoid killing them, I thought. After all, they're just slaves to the Empire. So how about this…
I channeled a wave of kinetic energy into my palms and clapped them together, creating a localized shockwave that instantly ruptured their eardrums and sent all the aliens crashing onto the floor. They were knocked out cold in seconds.
The Viltrumite officer, slightly disoriented, roared and launched himself at me with his fists raised for a strike.
I effortlessly caught his leading punch in my palm, absorbing the kinetic impact. Before the shock could even register on his face, I drove a spear-hand directly into his throat, cleanly severing his head from his body.
Too easy, I thought, wiping the blood from my fingers.
I walked over to the main console to manually disarm the bombardment cannon, and as I did, my enhanced hearing picked up a frantic, staticky voice.
I looked down. One of the unconscious alien mercenaries had a high-frequency communication device strapped to his ear, and it was actively broadcasting an encrypted Viltrumite military channel.
I reached down, ripped the earpiece off the alien, and pressed it to my ear.
"—repeat, Unit Seven has successfully bypassed Coalition patrols," a voice echoed through the speaker. "We are converging on the primary Coalition supply hub in Sector Four. Extermination protocol is active. Primary targets confirmed on site: The traitor Nolan, and his spawn."
What?! I thought, attempting to listen to any more messaging.
Sector Four was where Nolan and Oliver were heading after the successful completion of their previous sector. It was where the Coalition held their largest agricultural and munitions foundry. The Viltrumites couldn't get to it before because it was heavily guarded. But with Talescria itself being pushed in, more people are being pulled away to protect "home base." If that hub fell, the rebel front lines would starve and run out of weapons in a matter of weeks.
I placed a hand to my chin in deeper contemplation.
Thragg isn't just drawing soldiers to the outer rim to pinch Talescria in, I realized in disbelief. He's splitting the Coalition forces' focus by attacking main supply lines and anyone aiding it while the network was blind. What a masterclass of tactical wit. This bastard is truly one of a kind, isn't he?
I dropped the earpiece and crushed it beneath my boot.
I tore a massive hole through the dreadnought's viewing port, rocketing back out into the vacuum of space, and tearing through the cosmos toward Sector Four.
Hold on, guys, I thought. I'm on my way.