Jotun slowly scraped his claw through the display, tearing a long gouge through the table. His fleet had finally arrived. This was it; the Othrys system in days of old, now apparently dubbed Sol. They would purge it of its armed forces, sell its ruins to the Empire, and finally cleanse the stain of dishonor from his family. Hopefully he might even reclaim his father's remains; undoubtedly the vile Cronos had kept his body as a trophy somewhere. Passive sensors painted a picture of a system that wouldn't look out of place in the Kingdom; a few dozen Assault Ship-class vessels, a scattering of smaller ships. Various orbital structures, a handful of signs of construction scattered about. Considering how young this society was, it would be considered a promising start.

For any other species, he would hesitate before turning them over to the Empire. He might take them in as vassals, or slaves. This sort of development showed possible useful traits.

But not for these. His advisors had various theories why this species had so many mutations. Unusually high background radiation. The moon. Some quirk of evolution. But while the powers of the Jotun were the result of thousands of years of careful genetic development and cybernetic augmentation, these creatures were simply randomly born with gifts; sometimes ones that made even his own family pale in comparison.

A Jotun soldier could outrun one of these human ground vehicles. Lift ten times his own weight in his home gravity; and even move comfortably in the much heavier gravity of earth. Heal rapidly from injuries; and be harder to injure in the first place thanks to his armor and weapon systems. More than enough to slaughter most humans.

But while the reports from the scouting fleet had emphasized the Titans were gone... they had also shown vast threats among the local population. Individual humans capable of slaughtering hundreds of Jotun. And without the bombardment ships, it would turn this war into a bloody slog rather than a rapid conquest.

He selected a good position for their next jump. The entire fleet would emerge... here. Just seven light-seconds from earth, close enough to begin firing their plasma lances immediately, hopefully scoring a surprise volley on the enemy before they could start dodging, and close range for missile bombardment of every single human defense. If the enemy wasn't taking appropriate precautions, it would be over in seconds. If they were, they would close in within minutes, and end the war in space immediately.

***

Eyeball settled the rune-carved handgun on his hip, checking himself over. His gauntlet was... different. Integrated with the storage space in his hand to let him call up any of the objects inside and feed them directly into his grip; including dozens of types of grenades for his 40mm handgun, clips for the 10mm. He needed to pick his old 40mm up from the labs; the one which also had extra storage in it; and head home for the night. He'd already spent too long at the lab this week.

He nodded at the few employees still in the lab; he didn't mandate any given hours, but he did give bonuses for results, and some of his people ended up sleeping in the labs; a practice Cobalt tended to discourage. Still, the Class 3 lab... now just making tools for his own personal use, and that of a few immediate friends, now that Ripper had passed.. was occupied.

As he stepped into the lab, whistling to himself, his hand suddenly started.. buzzing. A faint alarm sounded in his helmet as he stopped at the doorway, frowning. The helmet was alerting him... about his gun?

The weapon was laying atop the counter; modified with a rail that partially extended into the extradimensional space, letting the 40mm revolver fire with magnetic acceleration that would exceed any handheld gauss rifle that didn't have five million dollars worth of technology pumped into it. And... his helmet was giving him a series of warning flashes.

Jenny abruptly ran around the corner; wearing an armored vest under her labcoat, a heavy welding visor over her face; if not for the vibrant green hair she'd adopted recently he wouldn't have recognized her. "Boss! Wait!"

Eyeball looked at her for a moment. The vest had soot-marks. Had she been playing with fire again? "Why is my helmet warning me not to touch my gun?"

"Okay, so. We've been doing a little research. You remember how you told Carmody that if he came up with a way to kill a Titan like Spike and convinced you it would work, you'd give him fifty million dollars, even if you never used it?"

Eyeball frowned. "That was... a few months after I founded the company. Spike isn't even on earth anymore. Has he been working on it the whole time? I thought he was hopping teams. Didn't he help you with this thing?" He held up his cybernetic hand.

"Yes, he did. Actually, he wanted to collect the cash, buy himself an island, and retire, so he's been jumping at any project that looked like it might give a solution. He was watching that Idris Elba movie where he had a bunch of awesome bits on his costume that were like... little tiny objects that suddenly blossomed into guns, and thought you'd find it awesome if you could put the entire package of arms inside your hand; and just 'fwoom'; be holding a rifle, or a missile launcher, or anything, instead of just clips and bullets."

Eyeball thought for a moment. "... I'm familiar. In fact, If I recall, the comic he was based on, he actually teleported guns into his hands. About how you're wanting to do, right?"

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"No, it was Carmody's idea. But copycat or no, it would be badass, right?"

"Sure. But I want to keep this a bit quiet. Only close associates should have this stuff for now... or even know about it. So overtly making guns appear is a negative."

"Okay, okay. But thats not the point. We found out what happens if you try to put a gun that has an extradimensional space into another extradimensional space. Thankfully with small, test units."

Eyeball glanced down at the 40mm, then at Jenny. "Something bad, I'm assuming."

"Well. If anyone other than Cobalt had done it, they'd be dead. So... pretty bad." Jenny lifted her visor, looking a bit sheepish. "But it was Cobalt! So.... he's not gonna be good for a few more days, but he's alive!"

"...What did you do to my security chief?"

***

The video was fairly low-resolution; and showed three figures; one with blue, transluscent skin, wearing normal security armor; and two in lab coats, wearing clamshell armored vests and helmets, talking. Cobalt was holding up a tube, while a metal frame was strapped around his thigh.

"The holster is an extradimensional space. So far we've got a gun and some batteries in it. No bullets. The gun is one of the prototypes we made before we got Eyeball's gun settled. The math says putting one inside the other should be fine, but the Engineer said I was wrong; and if I did, it would blow my arm off if I was lucky."

Cobalt looked down at the cylinder in his hand. "So. Basically..."

Jenny smiled. "I think it will be harmless, and would like to just have a robot test it out. Put one on a wall, have the robot push the other into it, and observe. Just in case its an energetic reaction, down in the blast chambers, or even out on the ocean."

Carmody slapped Cobalt on the shoulder. "I think that's a waste of time and an expensive robot. You're pretty much invulnerable, right? You can just stick one in the other, boom, and if it explodes, well, you'll be fine! I'll get you some spare clothes and we'll call it a learning experience and tell old Engie he's right."

Cobalt chuckled. "I would call you an asshole for that, but I'm the one who bragged I could probably live through a nuke. Alright. Setup the cameras and I'll try it."

"Already set!"

Cobalt nodded for a moment... and then looked at the two thoughtfully. "Just in case..." He removed the holster, setting it on the floor; and then, as Carmody and Jenny backed up behind a blast shield... dropped the tube into the holster.

***

Eyeball looked down through the hole in the floor; a ten-inch thick, armored floor; and then up at Cobalt; or rather, the top half of Cobalt, where it sat on a wheelchair, wearing a t-shirt that... went far past what was left of his torso. "So. If I put one inside the other... what exactly was that?"

"The more energy inside it, the bigger the area of effect. Those two were tiny. Maybe a meter radius sphere was... warped into another reality and then left there? At least, that's our best guess. If alternate dimensions are a thing, we might have just donated one half of a Cobalt. We actually don't know if even this would cut someone like Spike or Valkyrie in half... but it could send them to another dimension, or just make them cease to exist. Either way, not our problem anymore."

He sighed. "Cobalt... you ever been hurt this bad before?"

"Splattered all over, plenty of times. Half actually gone, not recoverable? Yessir. Once. Took me a month to reform a new left arm and leg, though... if I really, really focus, I could at least temporarily just be a really short version of me. As soon as I stop concentrating through, I'd go back to being like this."

"...You're on leave or light duty for the next month. Your choice. Pick a replacement. And.... I'll split the bonus between the three of you. This... would probably work. So it merits the bonus. Just don't tell Valkyrie. And disable the warning in my helmet. And, well. I'll need a rapid-release function for my hand... just in case I ever need to do this deliberately."

***

The Chain of Eternity settled into her throne. She wasn't the captain of the ship; that was a larger, male, Jotun several meters before her on the bridge. She was cargo. Precious cargo, which was considered more valuable than even the King; they would sooner sacrifice him than herself. The king had twelve heirs, and should he die in this invasion, the seventh-born; the one who had proven himself the most worthy of the King's descendants, among thousands; would take over. Having children would destroy her capabilities; so while she had clones, copies, none were quite as capable as herself. Imperfect. Inferior.

Physically, she didn't seem that imposing. An emaciated, scrawny Jotun female; while the average Jotun female was over three meters long, and the average male two and a half, the Chain was perhaps less than two, with slender limbs, with a pale, delicate carapace; wound up with chains.

The product of centuries of genetic effort to create the perfect telepath; someone built to, in the event the Jotun were ever forced into war with the Empire, turn the Emperor against his own people and hopefully force the unstoppable tyrant to kill himself, if anything could; she was bound into a mass of thousands of chains of various materials, all carefully carved, prepared, and bathed in the blood of thousands of sacrificed Jotun, to create... the most potent telepathic amplifier in the universe.

The amplifier was built for a singular purpose; to conquer the unconquerable mind. And while the Chain could normally influence others, and provide all sorts of useful information at remote... when the artifact to which she was bound was turned on, she could form a connection to anyone, and overwhelm even the greatest of minds; and until the power ran low, they would be her puppet. Of course, when the subject died, or the connection was lost, she would go into a coma, until the device was prepared again.

But... the times she'd been called upon to use the artifact had been the greatest moments of her long life. Freed of the bindings that kept her physical body imprisoned, she could roam the stars in some other form, and use it as she wished; generally to the detriment of the enemies of Jotunheim. She knew the purpose she'd been bred for, built for, and yearned for the day she could take over the Emperor; and maybe, just maybe, find a way to stay there. To never have to return to this fleshy prison.

Still. For now, she could scan the earth remotely, looking for viable candidates to take over. She couldn't make out much detail from the edge of the solar system, but once she found a viable candidate... hopefully she could keep them alive long enough to really enjoy herself as she used them against their allies on earth. The moment earth's orbital defenses were cleansed, she would be delivered; and could truly live again.