As RC stared at the displays, she fell back on her massed connection. For the moment, she stopped being Renee Chambers, and became Ascension once more, feeling the rest of the engineers aboard the Jeanne, the sophisticated supercomputer carried in the extradimensional space, every sensor, every tool available.

The object that had entered the system was virtually impossible to quantify. It had the mass of a planet, a constantly shifting center of gravity, and while it was on a steady intercept course now, when it had first entered it had seemed to stutter, acceleration increasing and decreasing at insane rates. It should not be possible. It was too heavy for its size, too fast for its size.

But it perfectly matched scans by the Imperials against the Emperor. The same giant Rikk form; an obsidian squid that seemed pulled from a Lovecraftian nightmare, that could just as easily destroy a planet with a simple physical blow as it could consume all life on its surface. She checked all data. Confirmed.

The Jeanne was still 32 minutes from full readiness. The main gun was almost ready, and would be in less than two. She could sense one of her engineers and over a dozen repair drones moving down the line, fixing both a Kezia-sized hole and numerous stress fractures from the landing and bombardment.

Their primary weapons in this case... Ripper and Kezia... were... well. Ripper was prepped. Kezia... was in progress.

***

Kezia looked at the armor plating in her hand, still dripping with saliva, and looked back at Rex. A set of mechanical prosthetic limbs were holding a relatively flat psueudoneutronium piece and he was... chewing on it. Somehow, despite her incredible, vast power, this engineer's jaw strength was still the most powerful thing onboard... and the only thing able to shape it in the time available. She had been amazed that she could shape it in her bare hands at all, something only Butcher had done before... but... it was a struggle.

She grimaced, wiping it off with a napkin, and settled it into place. It would likely be useless; the Emperor would try to eat her with his life-draining, and, failing that, probably crush her telekinetically; and with the vast power disparity, it would, eventually, work. This armor... might as well be paper against a telekinetic blast from a giant space squid.

But who knew. A stray tentacle might smack her and it could be the difference between life and death.

A few meters away on the cargo deck, Eyeball was going over his armor; especially the thruster pack; piece by piece. Ripper was seated atop a crate nearby, watching; his own armor now grey with blood-red stripes, and a red sawblade mohawk sticking up from the helmet. Ripper sighed, watching as Eyeball made tiny, precise movements with a pair of pliers.

"Come on, man. Cyborgs and robots put that thing together. Your stuff will be awesome. And... well. I actually had a change of plans I wanted to talk about."

Eyeball chuckled. "When I first put it on, I could feel that the thrusters didn't quite compensate for the mass right. We're both much heavier than we look... and this is a much more powerful thruster than I normally use. I suspect our own weight increase threw off the math. Luckily, I know exactly how far to change things."

"Fine, fine, whatever. Look. My weight limit used to be around two hundred pounds. Now, it seems closer to twenty thousand."

Eyeball blinked. "Well. That's nice. You could take a whole cargo container with you... merge it with the Emperor's brain, maybe take it all out at once. That would be great."

"Sure. It could be. But.... I think the odds would be better if I took you with me, as well."

Eyeball gave a slow nod. "Sure. Actually...."

He glanced up, and tapped his helmet. "RC. How light can you make an anti-matter bomb in the next ten minutes?"

After a few moments, a voice came on. ~All of our anti-matter is in neutronium bottles. I think Rex could get one open, but making it safe to do so.... Problematic.~

"Best bomb you can get us less than ten thousand pounds?"

The wait was longer this time. ~We retrieve several Imperial nuclear devices during the conflict on the Capital. Some were non-destructively disarmed. I can get one ready for timed or remote detonation within two minutes. but cannot project the yield; the larger, slower ones arrived after the disrupter was activated and failed to detonate. At minimum ten to one hundred times as powerful as the ones that did in fact go off.~

"So, gigaton weapons? Would one do any good if we could drop it inside the Emperor's brain?"

This time, the response was immediate. ~Negative. Antimatter might do the job, can't be sure, but not a nuke.~

Eyeball glanced at Ripper. "Sorry. I suppose a crate is the best bet, however big you can shift. Unless you think you can take one of those antimatter slugs?"

Ripper frowned. "Aren't those like... a bit bigger than my thumb, but over eighty tons?"

"Yep. Reinforced neutronium tip and a pseudo-neutronium shell around the antimatter. Made to hit a target as tough as the Emperor, penetrate, and blow up. Though... probably only penetrate a meter or so into a giant monster."

"...Is most of that mass in the tip? I may be able to just pull the antimatter bottle off."

The Engineer came back on the line. ~The containment bottle for the neutronium is about seven thousand pounds. If you could split it off...~

***

Kezia looked off to her left; Spike gave her a nod, where he floated in space in his own armored suit. She glanced off to right right; Ripper and Eyeball were both mounted to what essentially looked like a waterski hooked to a rocket; a ridiculous, janky contraption; and both gave her the thumbs-up.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

She shook her head. In her own vivid purple armor, hastily painted at her request before she stepped out; and thankfully instantly dried by vaporization in vacuum; she turned to meet the oncoming squid; and took hold of space... twisting.

The next; the Emperor was there. An enormous monster, vivid with a blinding amount of life energy; so much that it was like staring into the sun, painful to even feel; but still. She reached out; and started to pull. Stealing. Drawing forth what what she could. She inhaled, smiling. "I will destroy you, Emperor! I am Empress Kezia, and what of your domain I do not eradicate, I will own!"

She felt a brief shift; the familiar sensation of when she'd stood too close while her brother was absorbing life force; it couldn't actually touch her... but she could tell it was there. The Emperor seemed... stunned that it hadn't worked. For just a moment, the tentacles froze in place. She could hear a twisted hiss over the radio; and the translator cycled through.

~I am Emperor Samarr, ruler of the galaxy. Clearly I have allowed your pitiful race of bipedal mongrels to survive for too long. I will visit your home, 'Empress', and I will hurl it into the sun.~

He abruptly swept forward; she could feel where a surge of telekinetic power just barely missed her; and she danced out of its way, flitting from place to place, even as she kept drawing power away.

It was like trying to empty an ocean with a straw; she just wasn't there yet. But... she could certainly distract him.

Suddenly, the Emperor shuddered. A brilliant flash of light; a neutronium railgun slug had impacted the base of one tentacle, expelling a tiny pocket of anti-matter directly into the open wound; leaving an actual wound on the beast, spilling glowing grey ooze...

Which visibly pulled itself back into the injury as the Emperor turned to focus on the distant form of the Jeanne. ~A thousand ships armed with such guns could not slay me. You dare to jab at a god with such a needle!?~

Another flash of light. A different tentacle suddenly impacted, closer to the tip; the tip actually severed, falling into space... even as a new one was visibly growing back. The Emperor let out a shriek of anger... turning towards them; seeing another living being approaching, he attempted to draw its own life force... only to feel... a Titan. One of this incredibly irritating beings of infinite power. Impossible to drain.

He wasn't certain of just what power it possessed; but it didn't feel like Cronos.

He reached out, deciding to grasp this one, and hurl it into the sun to keep it out of the fight; then it could turn on the starship... and lastly, on this... irritatingly fast Empress. So many little flies... he needed to start crushing them.

***

The Ethereal was.... crazy. It was almost like a negative space; an endless white void, with shadows, reflections of the real world in distorted visions. Eyeball had no idea how it worked, how Ripper's power let him come here, or go back. Or why physics worked this way at all here; Ripper seemed to be moving them as fast as a starfighter just through force of will; he could easily reach orbit back on earth with his power if this is what he was capable of.

Eyeball shifted the joystick; both providing a guide line for Ripper's movement, and altering thrust on the sled. "To the left. Push us to the left. Just a bit more." He looked down at the bomb. It had a 10-second timer; enough to let Eyeball, at least, plant it safely while he was working with Ripper.

He could see where they would end up if they hopped back in. Just a few kilometers from the Emperor; right within reach of those massive, deadly tentacles. Ahh! He was changing course. There.

"Okay. I'm going to start a timer. When it hits zero, we need to shift. Wait two seconds... then shift back."

Eyeball reached forward; and at just the right moment, tapped a button. He could see how much delay Ripper would have, and was easily able to work that into the prediction. He started the timer on the anti-matter shell as well.

"This is going to hurt him, but I doubt it will kill him. So get ready to hop again; I'll be turning us back around to make another pass."

Suddenly... the world turned into a strange, oppressive hellscape. They were surrounded by a dark gray, formless mass, with a strange grey ooze covering them... Eyeball shoved the shell off of the craft, hearing it start to creak and groan under the flesh pressing in around them... and then they were back in the white emptiness of the Ethereal.

Eyeball smiled. "There we go. One anti-matter bomb delivered.... and it should have already gone off by now. Get ready, I'll tell you when to make the next hop."

He turned the lever; but... something was wrong. He glanced at Ripper. There was a cloud of chunks of neutronium, and splatters of grey fluid in every direction; and Ripper was clutching his side. "Ahhhh... fuck. D... did it wrong."

He glanced back at Eyeball, swiveling that absurd red mohawk to face him. "Either I did it... too fast... took too much....or there's something wrong with this grey stuff. Didn't hold it quite right, trying to leave the bomb behind. Some of the... ooze... replaced some... air in my lung. Burns."

Eyeball gave a slow nod of understanding; this was likely something Ripper had been through before, under less dangerous circumstances. "Sucks, man. You still good to go, or are we reverting to plan Kezia and getting you to a doc?"

Ripper shook his head. "Fuck no, man. Hurts like hell, but I've done this before. Last time it was smoke and ash. Almost as bad. Line us up, I'll take us back. Lets finish this bastard."

***

As the Emperor reached out for the unknown Titan.... suddenly, the world was lit up with fire and pain; the Emperor let out a shriek of agony and rage that spread across the star system, sending Kezia and Spike flying away, rattling the Jeanne. He stopped moving, barely able to understand what was going on around him. Who he was fighting, what happened.... it was as if someone had somehow taken one of those damned anti-matter charges and put it directly into his brain.

He stopped moving, feeling around himself; he tuned all of his senses fine enough to actually reach within his own flesh. Somehow a chunk of foreign matter was... inside him. Deep in his core... the fragments of an antimatter bomb with a neutronium case. Or almost neutronium. This... A few of these could actually kill him! Just the one hurt, like hell. These creatures... They'd come prepared to kill him.

He could also sense... broadcasts. There was one coming from the Imperial fleet. It had been there the entire time, he just... hadn't been playing close enough attention, as the relay station he normally checked was... gone. A desperate warning.

He studied it for just a moment, before panic filled his mind. ~Emperor! Cronos is alive, and aboard that ship! He threw a rock, turned it into a black hole, and wiped out the fleet; then turned it back into a rock. He is here hunting you! The Empress is a ploy to draw you out!~

He twitched, a ripple moving across his immense flesh. This was... crazy. The Jotun said he was dead. Their reports said he'd no longer ruled the earth, had been killed by that precognitive servant of his and his allies! Were they... lying? Were they conspiring with Cronos to kill him? Did they serve the mad Titan now!?

They had been sending that warning out before he'd even entered the system, like the faithful servants they were. He'd been too focused on watching these Titanspawn to listen to the risk. If he'd heard it before he arrived... he would have started running. And never come back. Just watching the video being replayed on a loop, of the rock turning into a black hole in an instant, filled him with horror. The idea of being trapped in a singularity for eternity, hurtling off into parts unknown, even as Cronos did the same to the rest of the galaxy...

He focused in on himself, gathering his energy, ignoring the life-draining girl as he made sure he was outside of effective range of that damnable starship... and the Titan that must be aboard. He would form a gateway. Leave this Empire behind. Cronos could have it. The Emperor would take.... Andromeda. He could start a new one, there.