Deep in space, far beyond Earth, and the milky galaxy of sector 2814. Event were unfolding lightyears aways in Sector 112.
A part of the universe that held old stars, ancient trade routes, broken empires, and worlds that had learned long ago that peace was only as strong as the hands willing to defend it. In the darkness was the planet Jayd.
Jayd was beautiful from orbit.
Its oceans were a deep sapphire, broken by long chains of emerald islands and continent-sized landmasses covered in violet forests, high mountain ranges, and river systems that reflected the light of its twin moons. Great storms curled over the northern hemisphere in white spirals. As city lights glittered across the night side in clean lines, showing civilization.
But now, that beauty was being overshadowed by war and conflict. Not of the civil war of the planet, but that of otherworldly invaders.
Massive ships hung above the planet like black daggers aimed at its heart. These were Viltrumite war vessels, sleek, brutal, and built without wasted decoration. Their hulls cast long shadows across the upper atmosphere.
Beneath them, light bloomed on the surface of the planet. It wasn't everywhere. The Viltrumites did not destroy what they intended to use. But it was enough to make a statement. To force submission and remind Jayd that refusal had a price especially with the empire.
Above the curve of the planet, two figures tore through open space in a battle too fast for most eyes to follow.
One was Green Lantern Laira Omoto.
She was a humanoid alien woman with purple skin, strong angular features, white eyes without visible pupils, and crimson hair tied back in a tight ponytail. Her Green Lantern uniform glowed with emerald light, the symbol of the Corps burning bright on her chest despite the damage already cut across the suit. Blood drifted from wounds, floating in small dark-red beads before being pulled away by the movement of combat.
She moved with such discipline and control in the void of space. Not just the discipline of a Lantern. The discipline of a warrior born to a clan that had trained with blade, fist, and spirit since childhood.
She is the warrior princess the The Gold Dragon Clan of Jayd.
Against her was the Viltrumite soldier Thula. A powerful veteran warrior and executioner.
She was fierce and beautiful as she was cold, in predatory way. She had fair skin, with piercing blue eyes, and very long black hair gathered into a thick, weaponized braid. The end of the braid carried a sharpened metal blade that moved like a scorpion's tail whenever she fought, cutting through space with deadly precision. Her body was lean, toned, and muscular, built for violence. Everyone of her movements carried confidence as well as being deadly.
The two collided. Laira swept one arm outward, her ring blazing as she formed a curved green saber in her right hand and a shield in her left.
Thula came in hard, fists first.
Laira met her with a forward step in empty space, using her ring's flight field to anchor herself as if she stood on solid ground. Her saber flashed in a tight diagonal cut meant to force Thula off-balance. Thula twisted her torso just enough to let the construct blade slide past her chest, then threw a straight punch toward Laira's face.
Laira blocked it with the shield. The impact cracked emerald construct across the surface.
She rolled with the force, turning the shield aside instead of trying to stop Thula head-on. In the same motion, her saber morphed into a short spear. She sent a thrust for Thula's ribs.
Thula slapped the construct aside with her forearm, the impact sending green sparks across her skin as the spear shattered.
Then flicked her head sending her braid snapped forward. The metal blade at the end lashed toward Laira's throat.
Laira leaned back just in time, the blade cutting a shallow line across her jaw instead. Blood slipped free and floated away in a fine red drops.
Laira then countered with her ring. Three green chains erupted from it Thula, snapping around her arms and waist.
Thula grinned as she flexed. And the chains around her strained, cracks forming in the construct from the pressure.
Laira clenched her fist, reinforcing the constructs. As she formed more and more chains around Thula. They wrapped around every part of Thula, her wrists, shoulders, legs, and throat. For one second, the Viltrumite was bound in a cocoon of emerald chains.
Laira pulled her arm back and created a massive dragon-headed gauntlet around her fist. The construct roared silently in space.
She launched herself forward and drove her fist into Thula's chest. The impact sent Thula flying backward across open orbit, past broken ship debris and drifting fragments of destroyed defense satellites.
Laira pursued.
She formed a long green staff in both hands, spinning it fast as she closed the distance. The staff shifted mid-swing into twin hook swords. She slashed for Thula's arms, trying to limit her movement rather than kill her.
Thula recovered mid-flight, caught one hook sword barehanded, and crushed the construct in her grip. The other blade cut across her shoulder, drawing a thin line of blood.
Thula's smile widened. "There it is," she said.
Her voice carried through a small Viltrumite communicator field, translated and projected through the same channel Laira's ring had been using since the fight began.
"You are not bad, Lantern."
Laira answered by forming six emerald throwing blades and launching them in a fan pattern. Thula dodged two, slapped aside three, and let one cut across her thigh before she closed the distance again.
Their bodies met in a brutal exchange. Thula threw a right hook, while Laira ducked under it and answered with a rising palm strike reinforced by a green dragon construct that slammed under Thula's chin.
Thula's head snapped back slightly. And Laira followed with a knee toward the stomach. Thula caught it. Her fingers dug into the emerald armor around Laira's leg.
Then Thula spun and hurled her downward toward the planet.
Laira fired her ring in a burst, halting herself just above the upper atmosphere. Emerald energy licked at the edges of her aura as she pushed back upward, teeth clenched.
Thula came down after her like a spear. Laira created a massive circular shield above herself. The shield carried the symbol of a coiled dragon. Thula hit it with both fists, and the construct cracked.
Laira pushed back reinforcing it. Thula hit it again and the shield shattered, but Laira was ready.
She slipped sideways through the broken green light and created a chain-spear in her right hand. She wrapped it around Thula's wrist and yanked, pulling the Viltrumite off-balance. Then she spun, heel glowing with emerald force, and kicked Thula across the face.
Thula's head turned.
For a moment, she stopped moving. Then slowly, she looked back at Laira.
A thin line of blood ran from the corner of her mouth. Thula just licked it away.
"Your fighting capabilities are adequate. You would make a great instructor and leader from our grunts." Thula said, her tone cold but almost friendly. "Join the Empire while I am being nice. Under our rule, your Gold Dragon Clan would show its might. Your clan could be among our top enforcers."
Laira spat blood from her mouth. It floated between them in red droplets. "I already told you, Viltrumite," Laira said, voice sharp and full of hate. "The people of Jayd will never join your Empire."
Her ring brightened. "And on my life as a Green Lantern, I will stop you."
Thula smirked. "So be it."
She rolled her shoulders and tilted her head. "But I know that little green ring of yours stops you from killing. So your threat is a half-measure."
Laira's eyes narrowed. "No," she said. "It shows how great the trial above me is."
Then she attacked. The space around them filled with green light.
Laira created copies of herself, all made of emerald energy, each moving in a different martial rhythm. One carried a spear. Another wielded twin blades. Another formed a bow and fired arrows from above. Another came low with a staff. While Laira herself moved between them, using the constructs to hide her true angle of attack.
Thula laughed in Joy of the fight, as she tore through them.
Her fists shattered the first construct clone. Her braid blade lashed backward and cut the archer in half. She spun into a knee that broke the staff wielder apart, then kicked off the fading construct's chest and drove toward the real Laira.
Laira met her head-on. She formed gauntlets around both fists and struck in rapid combinations from her Clan's close-combat style.
Palm heel to sternum, elbow toward jaw, and backfist to temple. With a knee to ribs. Then a shifting dragon claw construct around her left hand that scraped across Thula's face.
Thula blocked most them, but not all. The claw scored her cheek. And Thula answered with Vicious precision.
Her left hand trapped Laira's wrist. Her right fist drove into Laira's ribs again and again. Then a headbutt that cracked against Laira's forehead with enough force to have her seeing flashing lights
Laira reeled. as Thula's braid snapped forward. The blade cut across Laira's side. Then across her thigh and her upper arm.
Laira pulled back, creating a wall between them, but Thula punched through it and followed. The blade at the end of her braid moved like it had its own mind, slicing over and over, opening Laira's uniform in clean, bleeding lines.
One cut across the stomach, another across the collarbone. One along the back of her hand.
Laira hissed in pain but held her stance. Her breathing grew heavy, as blood slowly ran from several wounds, dark against the green glow of her uniform. But her shoulders stayed squared. Her chin stayed raised.
Thula stopped a few feet away, floating casually, completely at home in the void. Then her eyes shifted.
"I guess our time together is up," Thula said.
Laira frowned. "What?"
A shadow passed over them and Laira turned. Behind her, another Viltrumite floated in space.
It was General Kregg. He was broad, with a powerful build, and older-looking man, with a hard but handsome in a rugged way type of face. Dark hair, two blue-gray eyes that had a stillness only veteran killers carried. His uniform bore the Viltrumite symbol. While his expression showed nothing but cold detachment.
In one hand, he held something by the hair. Laira's heart dropped before her mind understood what she was seeing.
Kregg spoke calmly as he lifted the object slightly, his eyes stayed on Laira.. "Our business on Jayd is finished. The other clan heads submitted, and the ones who refused stood and fought and died by my hands."
Then he tossed what he held. It drifted slowly through space toward her, turning in the green light of her ring. It was a severed head.
Laira caught it instinctively. Then her whole body froze as her white eyes widened. Her breath stopped. She realized it was her father. Kentor Omoto. The leader of the Gold Dragon Clan.
His face was bruised, bloodied, and lifeless. His hair drifted loosely around his face in the vacuum. His eyes were half-open, still carrying the ghost of defiance even in death.
Kregg's voice remained flat. "He fought hardest among the clan heads who rejected the Empire's generous offer. I thought I should at least return this," Kregg said. "Since it is all that remains of his body"
Laira's hands began to tremble as she pulled the head in close. Her voice began to crack. Tears formed, floating from her eyes in small shimmering droplets before freezing in the cold of space.
"No…"No…Father, NO!"
Thula's expression shifted slightly to one of irritation.
Kregg looked toward her.
"Thula."
She straightened immediately.
"You were ordered to either convince her or kill her. Not play with her."
Thula scowled, but bowed her head. "Yes, General. But she was so skilled. It was hard not to see how far I could push her."
Kregg raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
His gaze moved back to Laira. "If you say that then she must be worth something. Even if she is a lantern."
As Laira slowly raised her head, something had changed in her face. The grief was there, but beneath it came something hotter, darker, and primal
Bloodthirsty rage and fury twisted her expression. Her ring flickered as her willpower.
Shaking, her voice came out low ."You…Viltrumites"
She released her father's head carefully, letting it float beside her within a small green containment sphere.
Her hands curled into fists her ring flared brighter...Then her voice came out louder. "I swear on my father's life and the name of my clan…I will kill you all for this"
Kregg looked unimpressed. Then his eyes shifted, narrowing, as he noticed something.
A streak of red light tore through space behind him.
Kregg's hand shot out to the side. His fingers closed around something small and burning, but it did not hurt him. He brought it closer and looked at it. It was a red power ring.
The ring strained in his grip, hissing with crimson energy, trying to pull free toward Laira.
Kregg's expression barely changed. "Looks like Atrocitus has a new recruit."
Thula's eyes narrowed. "A Red Lantern ring, for her?"
"It would seem so."
Kregg opened his hand, and The ring shot forward instantly. It flew toward Laira faster than thought and slid onto her finger before she could stop it. A voice echoed through the void.
"Laira Omoto of Jayd.You have great rage in your heart."
The green light around Laira's body erupted. Then it twisted as red bled through emerald.
Her Lantern uniform transformed violently, green replaced by crimson and black. The symbol on her chest shifted into the mark of rage. Red energy crawled through her veins. Her mouth opened as something between a scream and a roar tore from her throat.
Blood-red light burst from her body. The green ring on her hand flickered weakly, overwhelmed by the red. Laira's eyes burned crimson. " With this power, I will kill you all!"
Kregg turned away. "Now we have to let her live," he said. "As part of the agreement."
Thula's jaw tightened.
"Thula. Take care of this now so we can take her to Atrocitus. I am returning to the ship."
Thula bowed her head. "Yes, General."
Kregg flew away without another word, cutting through space toward the massive Viltrumite vessel looming in the distance.
Laira screamed and launched herself at Thula. This time, there was no technique at first. Only rage.
Red plasma-like energy burst from Laira's mouth in a violent stream. Thula dodged, but the blast grazed her shoulder and burned through the surface of her uniform. She looked at the damage, then back at Laira.
"Your no different then a wild beast. Hopefully your more fun this way," Thula said.
Laira collided with her. The impact sent a shockwave through space.
Laira's strikes came wild, but powerful. Red energy coated her fists. Her ring formed jagged weapons now, not elegant green constructs but brutal red blades, hooks, and spikes designed to tear, and rip flesh.
Thula blocked one strike, but another slashed across her forearm. She caught Laira by the throat and drove a knee into her stomach.
Laira vomited red energy. Then Thula twisted away just in time as the burning plasma cut through open space in front of her.
Then Thula's braid was grabbed by Laira's and yanked her close. Thula used the moment and slammed her forehead into Laira's. She grabbed her head and did it. Again. Again, and again.
Laira screamed and bit into Thula's shoulder. Thula grimaced, then punched her in the side of the head hard enough to scatter red sparks from her aura.
The two spun through space in a brutal tangle. A Red Lantern lost to rage against a Viltrumite warrior who had finally stopped playing.
They smashed through wreckage. A dead defense satellite split apart under the force of their bodies.
Laira formed a massive red dragon head and tried to close its jaws around Thula. Thula tore through its skull from the inside and emerged with a bloody smile. She caught Laira's next punch, broke the arm at the elbow, then struck her chest with two fingers like a spear.
Laira's body jerked, but the rage kept her moving.
She headbutted Thula back, blasted red energy into her face, and tackled her toward the upper atmosphere of Jayd. Flames wrapped around them as they skimmed the edge of the planet's air.
That's when Thula finally ended it.
She caught Laira's throat, twisted her body, and drove her knee up into Laira's stomach hard enough to make the red aura flicker. Then she spun behind her and struck the base of Laira's skull with the edge of her hand.
Again and again. The third strike made Laira go limp. The red ring continued glowing, pulsing like a heartbeat. Thula held her unconscious body by the back of the uniform and looked down at the surface of Jayd.
"A shame," she muttered. "You really were fun."
Then she flew back toward the ship.
Some time later, Thula entered the main hangar of the Viltrumite warship.
The chamber was enormous, built with dark metal, hard lines, and no softness. Rows of soldiers moved. Conquered alien technicians worked under guard near consoles. Captured warriors from Jayd were restrained along one side, silent and terrified.
Thula landed heavily on the deck with Laira's unconscious body in one hand. Two men in Viltrumite uniforms approached immediately.
Thula threw Laira toward them. "Put her in a stasis chamber," she ordered. " Keep her high restrained and sedated. Use the Red Lantern protocols."
The two soldiers caught Laira and bowed their heads. "Yes, ma'am."
They carried the unconscious woman away.
Thula wiped blood from her cheek and turned toward the inner chamber. Beyond the hangar, through reinforced doors guarded by elite soldiers, was the command sanctum.
General Kregg stood before a seated figure hidden by shadow.
The chamber itself was dark, lit only by narrow lights along the walls and the glow of star maps projected across a nearby table. The atmosphere was quiet and severe.
Kregg stood at parade rest. "Grand Regent," Kregg said. "The mission on Jayd is complete."
The figure did not move at first, only his voice answered. It was smooth and controlled, he spoke in a monotone
"Report."
Kregg kept his head eye leveled. "The clan heads have been dealt with. Those who submitted are being processed. Those who refused have been eliminated. The planet is pacified, though resistance cells may remain in the lower territories."
"And the Green Lantern?"
"She was claimed by a Red Lantern ring during the engagement. As required by the agreement with Atrocitus, she has been taken alive."
The seated figure shifted slightly in the shadows.
Thula entered the chamber behind Kregg and lowered herself to one knee, fist touching the ground. The figure's eyes glowed red faintly from the darkness.
"Now, Kregg," he said, "tell me. Have we heard word from Nolan?"
"No, Grand Regent. So far no one has heard word from Nolan since he left Earth and took refuge on Mars."
The silence that followed felt colder than space.
"I see," Thragg said.
The shadows hid much of him, but not the large shape of his body, nor his presence. Broad shoulders. Still posture. Black hair and mustache. A body of full pure muscle with great power held in perfect restraint.
Grand Regent Thragg. The strongest living Viltrumite.
"And Jonathan?" Thragg asked.
"Still in the Phantom Zone as of Nolan's last report. No new reports on the status of the projector as well."
Thragg's fingers rested calmly against the arm of his throne.
" It's be around five Earth years," he said. Neither Kregg nor Thula spoke.
Thragg continued.
"Two of our best agents go silent on their most important mission for the empire. Earth still remains unclaimed. Nolan retreats to Mars and goes silent. While Jonathan is sealed away. While their children remain on Earth, and we receive no status reports."
His voice did not rise, and that made it worse.
"Send Anissa."
Kregg bowed his head. "To Earth, Grand Regent?"
"Yes." Thragg's eyes narrowed in the dark. "Find Jonathan's and Nolan's children. Confirm their condition, and If they remain loyal to the Empire, if so we will give them more time prepare Earth for the Empire's arrival, or send more agents to help if necessary."
A pause. "And if they refuse?"
Thragg's voice stayed smooth.
"Then we will send Conquest once he is finished on Almerac."
Thula and Kregg faces went pale at that.
Kregg " I am not doubting your order's grand regent, are you sure he can be trusted to follow orders, since Earth is a high value target?"
Thraggs voice then shifted as it carried a cold air to it, sending fear shooting through Kregg and Thula.
"I will not repeat myself General. Send the order, and Conquest will know what's at stake if he cannot rein in his primal urges. He also knows the revival of his house and people are connected to Earth and the House of EL. So he will obey. "
"Tell Ursaal, Onaan, and Gaia to be on standby should Anissa require assistance."
"As you order, Grand Regent."
Thragg closed his eyes, the glowing red dots in the shadows disappearing. "Now you both may leave me."
Kregg and Thula saluted once more and exited the command chamber without another word.
The doors sealed behind them and silence returned. As Thragg sat alone in the darkness for several moments, he turned slowly to his side.
There, suspended in a transparent containment vessel, floated the preserved head of an older-looking man. His hair was black with white streaks. He had a thick mustache and a face was of a handsome mature looking man, that even in death carried strength, and authority.
Thragg reached out and lifted the container carefully.
His expression shifted. Show the head reverence and devotion. With small signs of obsession. He brought the vessel closer and lowered his forehead against the glass. The light of the chamber reflected across his face.
"Soon, lord Argall," Thragg said softly. "The Empire's rebirth is close at hand. And this time, nothing will stop us." He said as he closed his eyes.