The command room of the Astral Knight Headquarters slowly dislodged itself from the building structure, fluorescent neon power tubes radiated to life as they prepared for liftoff.
The ground beneath shook with the immense power of the gravitational push as the entire room began to rise into the air. The steel supports that held it in place began to creak and groan under the weight, finally giving way with a metallic screech as the craft surged upwards.
As it rose higher and higher, the anti-gravitational power-train burned bright and fierce, exuding a blinding light before propelling forward toward its destination. The command room moved with a fluid grace, despite its massive size, and soon it was high above the ground, the city below shrinking into tiny buildings and cars.
The Guardians gasped, eyes wide open as the entire room started to dislodge itself from the headquarters, levitating then shooting itself toward Technia.
The panoramic floor-to-ceiling screen ahead of the command chair showed the view of the exterior and the holographic display which once showed the map of the Headquarters now projected a three-dimensional scan of the outside surroundings.
A younger Guardian stammered in amazement,
"The Headquarters is a … warship??!"
" The Aion warship…. Named after our great Emperor Aion Teleos… This was the Emperor's personal warship that led us to victory in the Great War."
"During the conception of the Fellowship of the Astral Knights, His Highness ordered the Headquarters to be built around the Aion warship."
"In his words, it'd be convenient if we needed to kick anyone's ass!" The elderly Astral Guardian chuckled as he slowly shook his head.
The younger Guardians, who knew only of the Almighty Emperor for his unrivaled martial prowess and the mighty sovereign's prestige were slightly taken aback.
"All Praise The Emperor!" they collectively praised, proud to feel that much closer to their ruler.
[ Capital of The Empire of Technia - Zukun ]
The Aion Warship hovered at the doorstep of a dome shaped force-field which covered the entire circumference of Zukun. No semblance of it once being a part of a building structure, the Aion warship had an interesting design, the command center where the Guardians and Athena were located was a rectangular cuboid.
Below it lay a hemispherical dome which housed a dimensional energy fusion reactor. Attached to each side were 2 giant cannons which dwarfed the command center, stretching meters long, like the domineering arms of a titan.
The ship was unlike any other that had ever been seen before - a marvel of futuristic engineering, built to travel at speeds faster than light and equipped with weapons capable of devastating entire cities.
A pale looking middle-aged man with mechanical arms and legs which peeked out of a jet-black cloak appeared. He levitated to the Warship's line of sight, standing tall on a circular disk which had the same fluorescence as the HoverCrafts on the underside of it. The cyborg had his chin pointed upward, his pride, illusory or not, shone brighter than the gleam of the Technian badge on his cloak.
He was obviously an official of status within the Empire of Technia. Prideful as he may be, the Technian official kept a relatively safe distance from the Flagship, he shouted:
"What is the meaning of….."
"FIRE!"
Princess Athena commanded before he could even finish his sentence.
Stolen novel; please report.
With a thunderous roar, the cannons fired, unleashing two massive beams of energy that lanced out towards the Technian, incinerating the Cyborg before blasting straight onto the Zukun force-field. The beams sent ripples throughout the force-field, shaking the cold emotionless cityscape of dark gray skyscrapers beneath it.
Zukun, the capital of the Empire of Technia, was no ordinary city, it was a futuristic cyborg society where citizens had fully given up the sanctity of being a natural being. They pursued the Way of Machina and believed that the symbiosis between the living and technology was the future.
Cyborgs of all shapes and sizes, their metallic limbs and glowing circuitry blending seamlessly with the flesh and blood of their human counterparts roamed the streets. Some were enhanced with incredible strength and agility, their bodies bristling with high-tech weaponry and armor. Others were more subtle, their cybernetic implants giving them enhanced senses or cognitive abilities far beyond those of mere mortals.
15 of their most powerful cyborg figures, of all shapes and sizes, shot up to the sky and lined up in mid-air. Some were propelled by jet packs and boosters while others stood on personal levitating platforms or crafts. This time however, they stood behind the force field.
A deep robotic voice echoed from deep within Zukun,
"Turn around little Astral and I will pardon your insolence…"
Athena sent instructions to the ship telepathically with her left hand still on the command orb. This ship was rumored not to have been built by the Astrals but found by the Emperor. It possessed technology that far surpassed Tertius.
A good example of this was the command orb, the warship did not need a platoon of pilots and engineers to operate it, anyone in the Emperor's bloodline can establish a telepathic symbiosis with it with just a drop of their blood as the genetic key. Of course, the captain needed to be strong enough to sustain the connection with the Aion warship.
With a single thought, Athena commanded her chair to elevate itself upward. A hatch slid open at the roof of the ship, giving way to her ascension. She circulated the powers of her core toward her throat, mustered all her killing intent and retorted,
"NO ONE MESSES WITH THE ASTRALS !!!"
A sonicwave blasted out of the Aion warship. It seemed as if a monstrous metallic behemoth roared with its two frightening maws of destruction.
Another hatch slid open and the Guardians shot out one after the other. It was technically 10 versus 15, however, the elder guardians like Guardian Strongarm or Zhuge TianGong could easily take two or three cyborgs on their own and they had the Aion warship to deal with the Technian Defense System.
Athena pointed her spear forward and another set of beams fired out the energy cannons, this time, accompanied by the various attacks of the Guardians by her side.
" BOOOOM!!! " A blood-curdling explosion erupted.
When the dust cleared, there was a three-foot cyborg standing before the warship, a strange fusion of man and machine that seemed both familiar and alien at the same time. Its head was unmistakably human, with features that were eerily lifelike and expressive. But below the neck, everything changed. The body was fully mechanized, a complex network of metal and wires that seemed to hum with a strange, almost organic energy.
The Cyborg's body was a work of engineering genius. It was sleek and streamlined, with joints that moved fluidly and skin that seemed almost human in texture. But there was something unnerving about the way it moved, something that hinted at the strange duality of this strange creature.
A few steps in front of him was another fully-cloaked figure who seemed to have single-handedly blocked the force of the attack. Beneath the cloak, the android was much more than it appeared. It was a being of extraordinary power, capable of manipulating the fabric of reality with a single thought. Its processors whirred quietly as it calculated the probability of various outcomes, analyzing the world around it with a speed and precision that no human could match.
An ominous robotic voice echoed from fully cloaked figure,
"Do not mistake our tolerance for weakness… You cannot comprehend the powers you are facing! ." a discomforting aura of crimson energy surrounded this veil figure.
Just as Athena was about to frown, a portal opened up beside her and out came Grandmama Tai Sui. Amidst the saluting Guardians, she stepped out and said coldly,
"Hmph! Geno's dogs snuck in I see, I smelt your foul stench all the way from Aion…. Now, tell me… what are these unimaginable powers you speak of"
"We are…. "
Grandmama Tai Sui stretched out a hand and clenched it, the overbearing presence that was the veiled man was immediately crushed into a smooth metal ball.
"Not interested…" Grandmama Tai Sui scoffed as she turned her gaze toward Emperor Technia.
"Consider clearly where your allegiances lie Technia, you may have made contact with Geno or even Vorta herself but this is still Tertius!"
Emperor Technia bowed politely, still perceptibly wide-eyed in shock at how easily the Empress Dowager crushed whom he thought to be inexplicably powerful.
"M..My respects... Emp.. Empress Dowager, a lot remains out of my control such as the assassination attempt on the Prince… I…"
"I don't need excuses, you challenged the Astrals and now need to repay the debt, while most of my powers are sealed… I can easily erase Technia even if the price might be exile."
Grandmama Tai Sui's voice thundered as she looked down onto the Cyborg Emperor, her form both magnificent and terrifying. She raised a hand, a strange, almost palpable force that seemed to crackle with an otherworldly intensity, as if the very air itself was being drawn into her palm.
Then, with a muffled sudden burst of power, Grandmama Tai Sui conjured a black hole in her hand. It was a swirling vortex of darkness, a maelstrom of energy that seemed to threaten to swallow up everything around it. The edges of the black hole shimmered with a strange, almost hypnotic light, and the guardians could feel its pull even from where they stood, as if it was drawing them towards it with an irresistible force.
However, Grandmama Tai Sui seemed unafraid, and she held the black hole in her hands as if it were a mere bauble, a trinket that she could wield at her whim. And as Athena and the Astral Guardians watched, they realized that she was doing just that - shaping the black hole, bending its gravity and energy to her will.
Emperor Technia's metallic frame started shivering, a look of fear showed clearly in his eyes as he sighed and muttered, " What... is the price?"
Grandmama Tai Sui snickered as she dissipated the black hole and dictated, " Hand over the DNSuit you got from Genos and your impudence shall be forgiven…"
"What is…. "
Before Emperor Technia could finish his sentence, he pummeled into the ground below.
"Do not test me boy, be thankful of my grace… you should understand better than most what it means to provoke Astralian Royalty! '' Grandmama Tai Sui glared down at the ditch, eyes glowing with malevolence.
The disheveled cyborg king struggled to get back up, but he finally tossed an iridescent metallic cube toward the overbearing Empress Dowager.
"Heh... Let's go back home…" A portal opened and she disappeared within it. The incident progressed so quickly that most of the Astral Guardians were still dumbfounded.