After securing the base and doing a damage assessment, we sat with Dr. Ohara and Dr. Aoi to review the current situation. Informing us about the several breaches in their world over the past two days, the first thing they asked was if we knew what was going on.
“Given your apparent history with the group attacking us, what can you tell us about them?”, Gengo asked, staring at us intently through his webcam.
“The Elves are called the Aen Elle, the specific group responsible for the attacks is a radical military order in their military called the Wild Hunt.”, Ciri said, giving them both some background on the Elves, “Due to some unforeseen circumstances their leader, King Eredin, has fused with a higher intelligence called Brainiac. Brainiac’s sole purpose is to sample, catalog, and erase everything he encounters in the Omniverse now that he can freely jump between worlds.”
“I am going to assume when you say erase, you mean everything else but the sample.”, Ohara remarked, writing the information down, “Do you have a rough estimate on the number of worlds he has destroyed?”
“That is not relevant here, if we can get the information we need from you quickly they will not return. Brainiac’s ship is currently docked on the world you discovered several decades ago.”, I stated, staring back at Gengo, “I need the test results from your initial experiment that started this whole mess. If I forcefully break their dimensional barrier, as Brainiac did, that world will collapse in less than fifteen minutes. Can you please send me the data so we can be on our way?”
Taken aback by my statement, Ohara looked back at her former superior with a confused look. Having never heard about this information before, she wanted to confirm if what I was saying was correct or a lie. Before she could even get a word out though, his gaze confirmed my words.
“This man is confused or misunderstands something, right?”, Ohara asked, wanting verbal confirmation, “If what he says is true…all the deaths related to the Pandora Project and the Nova Attacks…that falls on your shoulders.”
Instead of answering her question, Gengo closed his eyes and slowly reclined in his chair. Repeating the question, Ohara rose from her seat as her anger began to boil over. Slamming her fist onto the conference table, she demanded an answer from him.
“Do you realize how many lives we have cut short trying to “defend” humanity from those monsters!? I have had to lie and mislead thousands of young men and women into both the E-Pandora and Pandora programs for over a decade!! I did it because I thought it was humanity versus them so the end justifies the means!!”, Ohara screamed, throwing her folder at the screen, “How could you keep such crucial information from everyone!? We could have at least tried to work with you and resolve this together!! Instead of that, you decided to let the next few generations mutilate themselves to fix your mistake!! Your granddaughter died out there and your grandson would have been dead if not for Cole’s intervention!! Say something!!”
“What would you have me say, Scarlett? If I could not solve this issue, how could anyone else?”, Gengo remarked, looking at her as if it were fact.
“Enough, just give me the data so I can put a stop to this.”, I said, narrowing my eyes, “You can either help resolve your screw-up willingly or as a corpse, it does not matter to me. The man responsible for killing my children, grandchildren, and five worlds I called home for several decades is over there helping that bastard. Not only that, your doppelgangers are over there fighting for their lives while you sit here arguing with one another.”
Closing his eyes again for a moment, Gengo relented and agreed to send the information over to us. Accessing the data on his laptop, he transferred it over to Scarlett’s computer so we could review it. Having her pull up temporal and spatial readings he took when Maria arrived, I committed them to memory before telling her to delete the information immediately.
“Why?”, Scarlett asked.
“After we are done with this operation, the data will be irrelevant anymore as the dimension will be destroyed.”, I remarked, “Given what Gengo accidentally achieved, do you want future scientists opening wormholes to other universes? There are far more scary things out there than Nova.”
Understanding my concerns, Scarlett immediately deleted the files wanting no part of future troubles it may cause. Thanking her for her cooperation, I switched topics to preparations that needed to be completed.
“Gengo and Scarlett, you are going to need to have all available forces you have ready and on standby tomorrow morning. When I open the portal, the floodgates will open allowing Nova and Wild Hunt soldiers to cross over by the thousands. Make sure leadership is aware of this, the last thing any of us want is a nation using nukes during this event.”, I told them, “We will secure additional reinforcements as your numbers alone will not be sufficient to hold them back. Both of us have powerful allies that can aid you here and help keep casualties to a minimum.”
“Roger that, I will go give Bruce a call.”, Ciri said, taking her phone out to call him, “I…I will also contact Geralt and everyone else to aid us.”
“We will reconvene here tomorrow at 8 am.”, I commanded.
Acknowledging my orders, Gengo disconnected while Scarlett went to prepare the staff stationed on the base. Taking our leave, we went to my country to prepare for battle.
—3rd Person POV—
Sensing the demise of both his left and right-hand men, Eredin knew Cole was now on the other world. Deciding to abandon tapping this world for knowledge and resources, Brainiac attempted to forcibly leave the universe but was stopped by Cole’s Barriers. Trying several different methods to break through, all his weapons could not even scratch the surface of his magic. Understanding now just how badly he wanted the two deities they found here, both Brainiac and Eredin agreed that they should cut their losses to save themselves.
“All communication with our backup bodies has been cut off by Cole’s barriers, we are unable to upload ourselves to one of them. If we are killed here, our backup units will not power on properly.”, Brainiac warned Eredin, via their mental link, “Offering these two up as a peace offering may grant us safe passage.”
“I doubt it…”, Eredin replied, sneaking a glance at the two deities, “We already attempted to attack him several months ago. He is not likely to forgive and forget our crimes against him.”
“If tribute is not enough, we have weapons to distract him. The Frostspores are ready for use and the Wave Creation Device has been fused with my ship, both of them can serve as distractions for us. As a last-ditch effort, we can overload the Solar Fusion Reactor powering this ship to vaporize the other planet.”, Brainiac said.
“True, hopefully, it will not come to that though.”, Eredin stated, walking over to the two deities, “How are the preparations to leave going?”
Showing him the checklist they had made, most of the resources and supplies Brainiac requested had already been loaded onto the ship. Confirming that their list was accurate, Eredin asked when they would be ready to leave.
“The attack group I dispatched to collect the Nova Maria was wiped out.”, Eredin told them, “I believe your pursuer has reached the neighboring world.”
“I thought as much, that is why we have not left yet.”, the older deity sighed, “If that is the case, are we able to flee once the dimensional barrier breaks?”
“Brainiac is still calculating everything.”, Eredin lied, “I will let you know once I have an answer.”
Nodding their heads, the two deities returned to their work. Waiting for the cybernetic elf to leave, Chaos telepathically reached out to his colleague.
“They are lying to us.”, Chaos said, “Even though he is a cyborg, I can sense the dishonesty in his words. We have to do something…I do not want to die here!!”
“Neither do I, but we are out of options here.”, the old man sighed.
“Maybe…maybe we can plead with our former comrades for protection! They surely have not replaced us yet so we can use that to our advantage. If we show that we have truly repented, that idiot Goddess of Life will readily forgive us.”, Chaos stated, ready to throw his pride away if it meant he could live.
“That or we help take the cybernetic elf down. Do not forget that Cole is partnered up with their enemy too. While we will not get away unscathed, she may be able to sway him to let us live our lives as mortals.”, the old man suggested.
Letting out a sigh, Chaos agreed that was a possible option though highly unlikely. Deciding to explore the ship further this evening, the two of them broke their connection and continued on like nothing was happening.
After securing the base and doing a damage assessment, we sat with Dr. Ohara and Dr. Aoi to review the current situation. Informing us about the several breaches in their world over the past two days, the first thing they asked was if we knew what was going on.
“Given your apparent history with the group attacking us, what can you tell us about them?”, Gengo asked, staring at us intently through his webcam.
“The Elves are called the Aen Elle, the specific group responsible for the attacks is a radical military order in their military called the Wild Hunt.”, Ciri said, giving them both some background on the Elves, “Due to some unforeseen circumstances their leader, King Eredin, has fused with a higher intelligence called Brainiac. Brainiac’s sole purpose is to sample, catalog, and erase everything he encounters in the Omniverse now that he can freely jump between worlds.”
“I am going to assume when you say erase, you mean everything else but the sample.”, Ohara remarked, writing the information down, “Do you have a rough estimate on the number of worlds he has destroyed?”
“That is not relevant here, if we can get the information we need from you quickly they will not return. Brainiac’s ship is currently docked on the world you discovered several decades ago.”, I stated, staring back at Gengo, “I need the test results from your initial experiment that started this whole mess. If I forcefully break their dimensional barrier, as Brainiac did, that world will collapse in less than fifteen minutes. Can you please send me the data so we can be on our way?”
Taken aback by my statement, Ohara looked back at her former superior with a confused look. Having never heard about this information before, she wanted to confirm if what I was saying was correct or a lie. Before she could even get a word out though, his gaze confirmed my words.
“This man is confused or misunderstands something, right?”, Ohara asked, wanting verbal confirmation, “If what he says is true…all the deaths related to the Pandora Project and the Nova Attacks…that falls on your shoulders.”
Instead of answering her question, Gengo closed his eyes and slowly reclined in his chair. Repeating the question, Ohara rose from her seat as her anger began to boil over. Slamming her fist onto the conference table, she demanded an answer from him.
“Do you realize how many lives we have cut short trying to “defend” humanity from those monsters!? I have had to lie and mislead thousands of young men and women into both the E-Pandora and Pandora programs for over a decade!! I did it because I thought it was humanity versus them so the end justifies the means!!”, Ohara screamed, throwing her folder at the screen, “How could you keep such crucial information from everyone!? We could have at least tried to work with you and resolve this together!! Instead of that, you decided to let the next few generations mutilate themselves to fix your mistake!! Your granddaughter died out there and your grandson would have been dead if not for Cole’s intervention!! Say something!!”
“What would you have me say, Scarlett? If I could not solve this issue, how could anyone else?”, Gengo remarked, looking at her as if it were fact.
“Enough, just give me the data so I can put a stop to this.”, I said, narrowing my eyes, “You can either help resolve your screw-up willingly or as a corpse, it does not matter to me. The man responsible for killing my children, grandchildren, and five worlds I called home for several decades is over there helping that bastard. Not only that, your doppelgangers are over there fighting for their lives while you sit here arguing with one another.”
Closing his eyes again for a moment, Gengo relented and agreed to send the information over to us. Accessing the data on his laptop, he transferred it over to Scarlett’s computer so we could review it. Having her pull up temporal and spatial readings he took when Maria arrived, I committed them to memory before telling her to delete the information immediately.
“Why?”, Scarlett asked.
“After we are done with this operation, the data will be irrelevant anymore as the dimension will be destroyed.”, I remarked, “Given what Gengo accidentally achieved, do you want future scientists opening wormholes to other universes? There are far more scary things out there than Nova.”
Understanding my concerns, Scarlett immediately deleted the files wanting no part of future troubles it may cause. Thanking her for her cooperation, I switched topics to preparations that needed to be completed.
“Gengo and Scarlett, you are going to need to have all available forces you have ready and on standby tomorrow morning. When I open the portal, the floodgates will open allowing Nova and Wild Hunt soldiers to cross over by the thousands. Make sure leadership is aware of this, the last thing any of us want is a nation using nukes during this event.”, I told them, “We will secure additional reinforcements as your numbers alone will not be sufficient to hold them back. Both of us have powerful allies that can aid you here and help keep casualties to a minimum.”
“Roger that, I will go give Bruce a call.”, Ciri said, taking her phone out to call him, “I…I will also contact Geralt and everyone else to aid us.”
“We will reconvene here tomorrow at 8 am.”, I commanded.
Acknowledging my orders, Gengo disconnected while Scarlett went to prepare the staff stationed on the base. Taking our leave, we went to my country to prepare for battle.
—3rd Person POV—
Sensing the demise of both his left and right-hand men, Eredin knew Cole was now on the other world. Deciding to abandon tapping this world for knowledge and resources, Brainiac attempted to forcibly leave the universe but was stopped by Cole’s Barriers. Trying several different methods to break through, all his weapons could not even scratch the surface of his magic. Understanding now just how badly he wanted the two deities they found here, both Brainiac and Eredin agreed that they should cut their losses to save themselves.
“All communication with our backup bodies has been cut off by Cole’s barriers, we are unable to upload ourselves to one of them. If we are killed here, our backup units will not power on properly.”, Brainiac warned Eredin, via their mental link, “Offering these two up as a peace offering may grant us safe passage.”
“I doubt it…”, Eredin replied, sneaking a glance at the two deities, “We already attempted to attack him several months ago. He is not likely to forgive and forget our crimes against him.”
“If tribute is not enough, we have weapons to distract him. The Frostspores are ready for use and the Wave Creation Device has been fused with my ship, both of them can serve as distractions for us. As a last-ditch effort, we can overload the Solar Fusion Reactor powering this ship to vaporize the other planet.”, Brainiac said.
“True, hopefully, it will not come to that though.”, Eredin stated, walking over to the two deities, “How are the preparations to leave going?”
Showing him the checklist they had made, most of the resources and supplies Brainiac requested had already been loaded onto the ship. Confirming that their list was accurate, Eredin asked when they would be ready to leave.
“The attack group I dispatched to collect the Nova Maria was wiped out.”, Eredin told them, “I believe your pursuer has reached the neighboring world.”
“I thought as much, that is why we have not left yet.”, the older deity sighed, “If that is the case, are we able to flee once the dimensional barrier breaks?”
“Brainiac is still calculating everything.”, Eredin lied, “I will let you know once I have an answer.”
Nodding their heads, the two deities returned to their work. Waiting for the cybernetic elf to leave, Chaos telepathically reached out to his colleague.
“They are lying to us.”, Chaos said, “Even though he is a cyborg, I can sense the dishonesty in his words. We have to do something…I do not want to die here!!”
“Neither do I, but we are out of options here.”, the old man sighed.
“Maybe…maybe we can plead with our former comrades for protection! They surely have not replaced us yet so we can use that to our advantage. If we show that we have truly repented, that idiot Goddess of Life will readily forgive us.”, Chaos stated, ready to throw his pride away if it meant he could live.
“That or we help take the cybernetic elf down. Do not forget that Cole is partnered up with their enemy too. While we will not get away unscathed, she may be able to sway him to let us live our lives as mortals.”, the old man suggested.
Letting out a sigh, Chaos agreed that was a possible option though highly unlikely. Deciding to explore the ship further this evening, the two of them broke their connection and continued on like nothing was happening.
