In the heart of the subterranean workshop, the rhythmic clang of tools and the soft hum of gravitic lifts blended into a strange mechanical symphony.
Anton Vanko hunched over a skeletal exosuit frame, tightening a modular joint with trembling hands that were more accustomed to worn Soviet equipment than alien alloys. Beside him, Ivan cross-checked a floating holographic schematic, muttering under his breath.
"This actuator weight distribution is insane," Ivan said, dragging his fingers through the projection. "Without an AI to self-balance, the pilot's gonna have a very hard time."
Anton grunted. "Let's just do what we can."
Hovering a meter above the workshop floor on her maintenance drone, Lily swung her legs playfully, holding a lunch tray. With a tap on the controls, the drone dipped lower until she was just within arm's reach of the Vankos.
"Break time! You need food if you wanna build doom suits," she chirped as a small mechanical arm unfolded from the drone, extending the sandwiches right to them
Anton muttered a thanks as he took a sandwich from the drone's arm. He noticed Lily's holo-screen flicker, briefly showing a small spacecraft departing the base.
"Boss has a… big project today."
High above Earth, the Drop-Wing Skimmer slipped silently through the exosphere, its black hull absorbing the starlight. Luthar sat in the cockpit, hands resting on living controls that pulsed with faint light. Earth's curve glimmered blue and white below, while the rusty disc of Mars rose ahead.
Absolute silence. He preferred it that way.
When the Skimmer entered Mars orbit, Luthar activated the storage manifold. Space rippled like disturbed water, bending light until a shadow emerged—a massive, cathedral-like silhouette blotting out the stars.
FronFronting eyes, the Moon-Class Cruiser matematerialisedIts adamantine hull caught the sun in streaks of silver and bronze. Macro-battery arrays lined its flanks like sleeping predators, each barrel large enough to level city blocks. Dorsal lance turrets pointed silently toward the void, while a single prow launch bay yawned open, ready to birth interceptors or torpedo bombers. Gothic spires and sensor masts gave it the appearance of a drifting cathedral—a warship from a universe that knew no peace.
Luthar's voice was a whisper, almost reverent. "Harbinger of Ashes."
A low hum rolled across the void as the ship's reactor cores stirred, thrumming to life. The ship responded to his presence like an old predator waking from hibernation.
He guided the Skimmer into the cavernous prow hangar. Gravity plates rumbled beneath his boots as he stepped into the silent belly of the ship. Dust clung to ancient consoles; this cruiser had slept for years.
Inside the primary engine chamber, Luthar's mechadendrites unfolded, connecting to sealed panels.
"Warp drives stay dead," he muttered. "Too unstable for this reality. You will live on plasma, fission, and fusion."
Sparks flew as conduits were ripped free and replaced with his universal reactor modules, designed to drink from plutonium, thorium, deuterium—anything the galaxy offered
It would be a forge and a fortress, self-sufficient, ready to birth machines of war for any world.
While Luthar happily worked, the world below erupted in alarm.
Every major satellite in low orbit lit up with alerts. A gravitational anomaly spiked near Mars, followed by a massive visual contact.
In the SHIELD command centre, Maria Hill's voice was razor-sharp.
"Cross-reference every satellite. I want confirmation."
"It's not a meteor," an analyst said, pale. "Object is… symmetrical. Metallic. It just appeared out of nowhere."
Nick Fury's single eye narrowed as the first composite image appeared on the screen. A cathedral-like warship floated in Mars orbit.
He remembered Tony Stark's reports about Luthar's alleged origins—talks about a future parallel universe of endless war. At the time, Fury had dismissed it as paranoia or alien misdirection. But no Earth-born species would build that, even the aliens he knew would not build something like that.
Fury rubbed his temple."I don't know why this guy just parked a city-sized ship next to Mars, but this is going to be a nightmare for the entire planet."
Across the globe, similar alerts rippled through hidden channels:
NORAD raised orbital defence levels. Chapters first released on novelFirｅ.net
The European Space Agency demanded an emergency UN council.
Wakanda's orbital sensors picked up the anomaly, and King T'Chaka himself stared at the hologram in silence.
"This is a ship…" one scientist whispered. "…but nothing like we've ever seen. It's… wrong. Its design doesn't make sense."
Back in the void, Luthar stood on the observation deck of the Harbinger of Ashes, gazing at the silent planet below.
The engines hummed. The reactors stabilised. The dormant guns waited for a command.
Earth would panic. Nations would scramble. SHIELD and Hydra would whisper in fear.
He didn't care. This was just one more step toward claiming his own forge, a planet that would exist only to help him build the future war machines that would never fail in any universe.
"Soon," he murmured to himself, the hum of the ship echoing his words, "this world will know the song of the forges."
Author's note: I can see some people going to be unhappy as even at chapter 180 he hasn't built anything on Mars
For advance chapters you can join every donation would make easier to write more.
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