Tony spun toward the main console, fingers flying across the control panel. A large holographic display lit up in front of them, projecting the live feed from the ship's exterior sensors.
The spacecraft appeared instantly. Dark green. Covered in bio-organic plating that shimmered against the solar radiation like living armor. It had no visible engines, just a faint pulse of emerald light at its rear. The design was sharp, angular, clearly not human.
Ben and Johnny burst into the lab, both half-suited and wide-eyed.
"Something's happening," Johnny said. "We felt the ship shift."
"Yeah," Ben added, cracking his knuckles. "And not in a good way."
Tony didn't take his eyes off the feed. "That's because we've got company."
The ship zoomed in closer, the HUD outlining it with threat markers.
Tony said, "That's a Skrull vessel."
Johnny blinked. "A what?"
Tony turned to face them fully. "Skrulls. Shapeshifters. Parasites with a superiority complex. So far, every space-related accident tied to any breakthrough in tech or exploration? Them. The failed lunar expeditions. The Mars drone disintegrations. That time the ISS lost signal for twelve hours and claimed it was a glitch? Skrulls. They're the reason humanity's been crawling instead of leaping forward."
"Because they want us stuck," Tony said. "What we are doing is a threat to their dominance. Evolution is dangerous to them. Knowledge is dangerous. So they sabotage, assassinate, manipulate... from the shadows while planning for an invasion."
Susan stared at the projection, still processing. "And right now, we are close to discovering something important..."
Tony narrowed his eyes. "Yeah. We're very close. Starfire is proof humanity can not only reach the sun but survive it. Our readings, our tech, even the solar radiation capture protocols... they're watching us break the ceiling. And they don't like it."
The ship outside shifted position. Its green light grew brighter. Smaller drones began to deploy, spreading like spores.
Johnny grinned. "Well, guess what? We don't like them either."
Tony turned to him and Ben, smirk returning. "That's the spirit. You two ready to control some mechas and kick some alien butt?"
Ben cracked his neck. "Been waiting for this."
Johnny rolled his shoulders. "Time to light 'em up."
Tony tapped the console, and a new interface unfolded from the wall. Ten mechas powered up simultaneously in the mech bay. Each one, designed for rapid deployment and solar-energy-enhanced combat. Smooth black surfaces shimmered as solar radiation channeled into their cores. Their eyes lit up blue, synced to the neural feedback from the ship.
"Remote control is live," Tony said. "Choose your loadouts. And Sue. Leave this to us. You focus on finding that storm."
"On it," Sue took over a side computer.
Johnny picked the flame-based mecha, its arms ending in plasma igniters and solar jets. Ben selected a brute-style mech with reinforced arms, shield generators, and kinetic amplifiers. Tony took over five mecha, and the remaining mecha and combat bots are being controlled by Elena.
The moment the mecha bay doors opened...
Ten adamantium-armored titans flew into space, their cores glowing like second suns. Radiation spilled from their reactors, thrusters flaring against the solar backdrop. Behind them, smaller combat bots deployed in precise formation, leaner, faster, fully autonomous, each one armed with high-output plasma rifles and laser-guided nanoblades.
The Skrull drones swarmed forward in organic clumps, shape-shifting mid-flight, their frames distorting into predatory forms. Some resembled horned eels, others flying daggers. They moved like locusts, thousands in number, forming attack vectors in tight spirals.
Tony's voice crackled over the shared comms. "Engage. Prioritize their main ship. Anything that gets too close, erase it."
His five mechs split in synchronized choreography, each one armed with a different system. One wielded twin arc blades. Another, an energy cannon. The third: shockwave boosters that could flatten a Skrull pod in a single pulse.
All the mech and bots were customized with experimental solar radiation absorbers that turn the solar energy into a weapon and a secondary energy core.
Johnny's mech shot forward, jets of raw plasma bursting from his shoulders. He spun mid-flight, launched twin streams of solar fire, and sliced through three drones like they were paper. The mechs adapted the heat from the sun, overclocking their output.
Ben simply shot forward in a straight line, smashing through the enemy drones and slamming into the first Skrull strike ship like a meteor. His mech's arm transformed into a gravity hammer, the blow sending a shockwave through the alien hull and rupturing its entire midsection. The shield dropped thanks to the celestial adamantium's special property to absorb energy. Metal and green fluid sprayed out in zero-G. A second Skrull drone tried to flank him. Ben turned and launched a charged shield blast, the kinetic energy shattering its carapace.
Elena, controlling three combat bots in tandem, wove them through enemy fire like dancers through blades. One bot latched onto a Skrull hull and detonated an internal energy spike, bursting it from the inside. Another engaged two drones at once, blocking a barrage with its adamantium shield while stabbing both enemies with dual spears mounted on its arms.
The Skrull main vessel began pulsing, preparing to fire.
"Main cannon charging," Hermes warned.
"I see it," Tony replied. One of his mechs flew up and forward, folding its arms inward. The chest opened, and the solar cannon primed.
Tony narrowed his eyes.
A beam of compressed solar energy roared from his mech's core. It tore through space like a white-hot blade, punching a hole straight through the side of the Skrull ship. The ship buckled but didn't fall.
Johnny whooped through the comms.
"That's your idea of knocking?"
"They didn't answer the door."
The Skrull ship unleashed its cannon.
A black-green beam of corrosive plasma sliced through the field, melting one of the drone clusters in its path. But when it struck Tony's lead mech, the adamantium shell held. The energy washed off in waves, redirected through the armor's lattice system, and grounded through the solar fins. Zero damage.
Tony's mech tilted its head slightly.
He launched forward, twin arc blades glowing gold. He tore through two drones in his way, spun, and slammed both blades into the main ship's frontal ridge. Sparks exploded across the hull. The ship screeched, literally, as the organic parts reacted to pain.
Behind him, Ben's mech grabbed one of the Skrull boarding pods and used it like a battering ram, crushing through another drone wave.
Johnny twisted through a knot of enemies, igniting flares from his mech's arms and roasting three at once.
"This is almost unfair."
"It is," Tony said. "They just don't know it yet."
Elena triggered her backup bots. Ten more stealth bots swarmed from beneath the ship's underside, diving into the exposed core of the Skrull vessel. Inside, they exploded with precision charges, destabilizing the ship's internal gravity coils.
The Skrull cruiser began collapsing inward.
Tony's five mechs regrouped in a V-formation.
"Hermes. Final strike. Feed all reactor energy into primary weapon systems. Elena, shield the Starfire."
The mechs obeyed instantly. They went behind the prime mecha and fed it all their energy. Then the prime unfolded its arms. Plasma vents glowed brighter. Solar fins expanded like wings, spinning like a freaking giant ass spinner on fire.
The beam that followed was blinding. It ripped through the Skrull mothership from bow to stern, cleaving it clean in half. The shockwave cascaded out in a cone, shattering every remaining drone nearby.
Silence followed. Then...
[Skrull cruiser: Destroyed]
[Enemy count: 0 lifesigns]
[Allied damage: 5 bots]
Tony took a deep breath.
Johnny finally spoke. "Did we just win?"
Tony watched as the remains of the Skrull vessel broke apart and drifted, burning in the light of the sun.
"We just told the universe we're not prey anymore."
Ben grunted, leaning back.
"So who wants to bet that was just the scouts?"
Tony didn't answer. He stared at the wreckage. He knew Ben was right.
This was only the beginning.
"Begin DNA extraction. Now, I can build a Skrull detector," Tony said with his usual arrogant grin.
"No time. A solar storm is headed our way," Sue said as she put up the feed on the screen.
The calm that followed the battle lasted exactly forty-two seconds.
Then, alarms began to scream.
The lights on the command deck shifted from combat-red to ultraviolet blue, the ship's highest priority alert. Solar radiation pulses flared across every screen.
Sue stood in front of the main monitor, fingers flying over the controls as data surged in.
"Massive ejection from the surface!" she called out. "It's a full-blown Category Omega storm! Our drones won't work in this situation."
Onscreen, the solar field twisted violently. From the sun's corona, a plume of raw plasma surged outward, a massive coronal mass ejection (CME), bigger than anything they'd yet seen. It moved like an ocean wave... only this wave could crush a planet.
Johnny's eyes widened. "How long until it hits us?"
Sue replied instantly. "Four minutes. Maybe less. The initial radiation pulse will cook us if we're not sealed in. The ship will hold for 10 minutes or so. That's just my calculation."
Ben was already plotting the course, "Then let's MOVE!"
"No," Tony said as he activated his Model 50 armor. Silver nanites flowed out of his skin pores, covering his skin. "I'll extract the DNA. Sue, capture as much radiation as you can. Ben, keep your hand on FTL. We got only one shot. Let's beat the impossible again."
[Don't forget to 'favorite' the chapter]
If you like my work, you can support me on>: www.patr eon.com/XcaliburXc
[Read 18 advance chapters]