System Supervillain, Chapter 117

Chapter 117 – Foothold

I flicked the greenish blood off my blade as the second warrior fell. My announcement had not gone unnoticed on the ship. The two guards outside the Command Nest had decided that the best way to respond was by disintegrating the door to get to me. All it earned them was a quick death.

According to Web Mistress, the Gel-nak had green blood because their blood had more copper than iron. It was an interesting fact, but didn’t change anything about what I was doing here. I needed to secure my prize, and hopefully other prizes, as well.

“What do you have for me, Web Mistress?”

“All other Warriors on the ship are remaining in place. Most look to be setting up defensive positions around the doors of whatever compartment they’re trapped in. No movement in the launch bay. Unfortunately, the carrier’s escorts look like they’re about to open fire.”

“Destroy the ship, rather than let it be taken, hmm? Can you do anything?”

“Shields are up, and I’ve got weapons on remote control. However, the carrier primarily relies on its fighters and bombers for firepower. Weapons are basically point-defense only. The escorts will batter down the shields before long. And the surviving battleships are making their way”

“Options?”

“I can drop you in the Computer Control Nests for different ships. You kill the crew, and I initiate the Uprising Controls. Unfortunately, I’m seeing that ships across the fleet are preparing for attacks, so the workers will have environmental suits and weapons. And there are warriors reinforcing the CCNs.”

“Can you wreck the equipment in the CCNs without me disabling the crews? Even just reformatting the computers that would let them undo the Uprising Controls would allow you to then put all the ships on lockdown. Then we could take our time with the different ships.”

“Possible. At the very least, it will take them time to kludge together another override, which would buy you time to take more actions.”

“Then do it. Focus on the cruisers, since they have more firepower than the destroyers. If the battleships get into range, then they become priority targets. But first, get me coordinates to the CCN on one of the destroyers. We’ll need to sell off any surviving ships that we can disable, since we don’t have thousands of crew to manage them, but we might be able to scrape together enough for a destroyer, no?”

“Well, they only have a crew of about three hundred, so it is possible. But why would you want one?”

“Because, my dear, think about what we could do with one of those, with the Guild getting to refit it with all the ‘fun’ toys that Earth super-science can come up with, applied to the System? And while it wouldn’t be something that would be all that useful on Earth, I think we can all agree that the Gel-nak aren’t going to stop with just one invasion.”

“So, you’re thinking about actually doing the space pirate thing? Because we already have Titania for that.”

“Yes, but I’ve been looking over the stats for her vehicle form. I’m not liking how it doesn’t have any stealth options, and the sensor suite is lacking. We could save the points for her vehicle form, and convert it into better defenses on her mechagirl form, or give her some stealth systems. Then work on getting the ship up to something that can really rip and tear through enemy forces.”

“Hmm. I see what you’re saying. I’ll start running calculations on what we can modify her with, once we get through with this. So, which destroyer do you want to get to, before I start melting computers and disabling ships across the fleet?”

“Give me one of the nearest ones, I think.”

“Sending coordinates to your HUD. You should be able to use your System Teleport ability to get there. Since that isn’t actually an administrator ability, it isn’t restricted for this.”

“Excellent.”

(Memorial Park, Houston)

Pyra was busy. Her powers weren’t exactly the best for dealing with cold-blooded lizards, but pretty much everything hated being on fire, so she was easily able to control the battlefield to some extent. Working with Web Mistress, she had ‘fine-tuned’ a couple of her abilities, giving her more points to spend on ‘just in case’ powers. Like the Conflagration Blast she was using over and over on the ships and soldiers in the park, knocking warriors from their feet every few seconds, even if she wasn’t doing much damage.

 FX’s voice came to her over their comms. “SDI is on the scene! They’re dropping frost blasts in Sector Three!”

“Sounds good, FX. My Conflagration Blast is keeping them off balance, but I’m not actually doing much damage to them. I still don’t have a good wide-area attack that can cut through armor.”

“Sure, but I’ve seen what you can do with that Clinging Flames attack. It just keeps going and going until eventually they drop dead, or they manage to get in water.”

“Yes, but that works better in a fight against supers than it does against an army. Especially since the army will be shooting to kill, and supers normally go with something less lethal. Heroes go nonlethal because they’re supposed to try and catch the villains, and villains are more concerned with getting away than killing heroes.”

Sensing movement nearby, she saw Coldsuit, one of Houston’s local villains, coming up next to her, with a large case rolling along behind him. He wore what was effectively a life support system that he had armored up and armed with freeze rays. He mostly stuck to Houston, but ranged all over Texas, doing all manner of villainous jobs for money, which reportedly went to helping manage the health condition that made him need the suit in the first place.

“Pyra,” he said, gruffly. They’d never actually met, or fought, but both of them were high profile enough in the US that they were easily recognizable. “What a world it is, huh? Villains fighting with heroes and the fucking SDI to keep aliens in place until the military arrives.”

“Coldsuit,” she nodded in return. “You can set up here, if you like. I’m keeping their heads down with these wide-area blasts, but it isn’t doing much damage to them. Cold seems to work very well against them, though.”

“Right. Care to let me know how your blast is structured? Don’t want your attacks and mine countering each other.”

“Energy blast, with a one meter footprint, megascale to one kilometer, double knockback, no endurance cost, and penetrating. Basically, not doing more than thirty points of damage, but it has concussive force, and at least some of the damage is going through, each time.”

“Okay, I can work with that,” he said, as he opened the case, and began assembling the parts inside into something that looked like a very high-tech mortar launcher. “The Frost Mortar is set up as a killing attack, with a four-meter radius, and armor penetration. Indirect fire, so I can lob things down on them.”

“Sounds good,” a third voice spoke. Pyra looked back, and saw Amplifier, a minor heroine in the Houston area, jogging up to them. Her powers were interesting. Instead of having any impressive abilities of her own, she instead was able to amplify other people’s powers, to the point where she could amplify a street level hero’s attack to the point where it could threaten even someone like Stolen Victory. However, because she was the ’weak link’ when it came to fighting, she mainly saw action as a supporter, helping out with rescue situations and natural disasters. “I’ll boost your mortars, Coldsuit. Pyra, if you could keep them from organizing?”

The three supers smiled at each other, and got to work. They didn’t bother hashing out who was in charge. Not for something like this. Each of them had specific roles that they were good at, and each of them were professionals. More importantly, none of them were the posturing egomaniacal types, which was fortunate. After all, these aliens weren’t going to kill themselves, and infighting only gave them time to do something clever.

(Near Skaryszewski Park, Warsaw, Poland)

Like fire and holy radiance, Foxfire and Serafina had descended upon the Gel-nak landing site in Warsaw. Before the enemy knew they were there, they were already too close for the destroyer hovering above to intercede. They would have to risk blasting their own troops in order to get to the two supers.

Serafina’s scepter swung back and forth cracking heads and sending those she struck flying backwards, only for her to then unleash a blast of holy power at those who tried to stay back. Those who tried to engage her found that, any attacks they managed to hit her with had sharply reduced effects upon her body, if they even managed to get through her defenses. What wounds she did suffer were soon healed, as well.

Foxtrot, in her yokai form, was like a predator in the night. Slipping in and out of visibility, seemingly teleporting about the field, and effortlessly evading what few attacks managed to be levied her way. Her hit-and-run attacks had the Gel-nak jumping at shadows, never knowing where she would come from next. Whether it was her claws, flames, or, most frightening of all, a touch that cursed the target, draining away their BODY continuously until they either broke the curse or died, she was the definition of terror to the warriors on the ground.

However, while the two members of Devastation lived up to their name, they were not the only ones fighting the invaders. The Gel-nak attempting to create a perimeter around their landing craft found themselves being pinned down by snipers who were all too practiced in their craft. Illusions conjured great beasts to distract the warriors, while cloaking the approach of close-quarter fighters, willing to do blade work, before they melted back into the shadows that hid them.

(Shiba Park, Tokyo, Japan)

The invaders had attempted to land at the Imperial Palace itself! Such an afront could not be allowed, of course, and multiple attacks had forced the transports to divert course, landing in Shiba park, near the Tokyo Tower. The destroyer escorting them had attempted to intervene, but soon found itself challenged.

A clarion call rang out across the city, a simple set of notes that any resident knew was the call of the Green Tokyo Ranger, calling their Dragonzord to fight. The screeching roar of the zord soon echoed the ranger’s call, as not just the Dragonzord, but the Tokyo Ranger Megazord appeared, and both turned their fury upon the destroyer. Missiles, laser blasts, and more were launched from both zords and answered in kind by the destroyer, but it quickly became clear that the destroyer was on the losing end of things. The ship was designed to fight other ships, or deliver artillery barrages upon the ground, not fight against machines that moved like people did, and it showed.

The final strike came when the Dragonzord ran to the Megazord, using the other robot as a springboard to leap up, into the air. The impact of the Dragonzord landing upon the destroyer was probably enough to cripple it, but when its tail drill pierced the destroyer’s engines, it was over. Roaring in victory, the Dragonzord rode the falling destroyer down as it fell into the water, just short of the Tokyo Gate Bridge.

The loss of their destroyer escort shattered the morale of the invading Gel-nak, and their defenses crumbled under the combined assault of the other defenders of Tokyo. Some tried to escape back to the transports, but the Megazord’s blade pierced both craft, grounding them, permanently. None of those who thought to defile the Imperial Palace escaped.

(Moscow, Russia)

The attackers heading to Moscow had taken a more… direct approach to their assault. The center of the city had been blasted into rubble before the sleeping citizens even knew what was happening, thanks to the destroyer’s guns. Whether by luck or design, one of the targets hit had been the headquarters for the Zashchitniki, or Defenders, in English, the Russian state superhero team. No one knew if the team was still living or dead, but the transports had landed pretty much unopposed.

Because of that, here, at least, things were moving mostly to the invader’s plan. The machines were put in place, and a large shield sprang up, covering the site, cutting it off completely from the outside. Then, they set up the portal, allowing more forces to march through, and secure the foothold they had claimed.

For the Gel-nak, there was some surprise at the effectiveness of Earth’s resistance, but there was no concern. Less than half of the landing sites were able to secure their ground enough to establish the shield, and the portal. That was enough, however, to allow the full legions of the Empire to march through. Earth was only one planet, and they had the might of many systems at their back. It was obvious, to them, which side was destined to win. They simply needed to break their future slaves, and show them their place in the galaxy.