"When did we detect it?"
Steve Rogers couldn't make much sense of the blurry footage on the screen, but the seriousness in his voice was unmistakable.
Nick Fury folded his arms.
"That recording is already twenty-four hours old. Worse, based on its current speed and trajectory, the object will reach Earth's atmosphere in approximately three hours."
Tony Stark and Steve exchanged glances imdiately.
Now they understood why Fury looked so tense.
This wasn't paranoia.
This was a full-scale planetary ergency.
Humanity had developed sothing close to collective trauma when it ca to extraterrestrials. Every new alien contact now triggered worldwide panic. To most governnts, it no longer mattered whether the visitor was hostile or not.
Alien equaled extinction-level threat.
The irony was almost funny.
Not long ago, world leaders had been absurdly confident in Earth's military technology. Most believed that if aliens ever invaded, a few nuclear missiles would solve the problem.
Then reality punched them in the face several tis.
Now the pendulum had swung completely the other direction. Governnts had started treating every alien lifeform like a cosmic god while viewing human weaponry as glorified toy guns.
To be fair, Drex Valen had repeatedly solved alien crises using Earth-made technology, which restored so confidence.
But Drex had stepped down as Director of S.W.O.R.D.
Humanity couldn't rely on him forever.
Tony Stark, however, was far less pessimistic.
Unlike the politicians, he had personally fought aliens before. He understood sothing most people didn't.
Not every extraterrestrial was a walking apocalypse like Raditz.
Tony patted Fury on the shoulder.
"Relax. Lucy's already in position."
He sounded almost offended by the panic.
"The target's speed and trajectory are completely within calculation range. My girl's gonna shoot it down before it even gets close to the atmosphere."
Steve frowned.
"Lucy?"
Tony's grin widened imdiately.
"My private orbital defense satellite. Latest Iron Man upgrade."
The way he said it sounded less like he was describing a weapon and more like he was introducing a beloved daughter.
"Lucy carries a full modular support system for Iron Man armors and a recoil cannon powerful enough to vaporize an asteroid over a hundred miles wide. Right now, she's Earth's first line of defense."
Tony clearly intended the weapon to surpass Drex Valen's famous orbital cannon system, the Sword of Damocles.
He'd spent years chasing Drex's shadow technologically.
Now he finally had sothing he believed could compete.
Three hours later, the mysterious intruder arrived exactly on schedule.
Lucy had already repositioned itself into optimal firing range along Earth's orbital network. Three enormous cannon barrels extended outward simultaneously, locking onto the approaching target from deep space.
There was no hesitation.
No moral debate.
Any sovereign civilization had the right to destroy unauthorized objects entering its territory.
That principle applied just as much in space as it did on Earth.
The reason random alien warlords constantly showed up to terrorize Earth was simple.
Humanity still looked weak.
Nobody casually barged into the territory of the major galactic empires looking for trouble. Even Thanos wouldn't dare fly Sanctuary II directly into the borders of one of the Four Great Empires and start making threats.
They'd reduce him to debris before he finished speaking.
Inside Lucy, a massive Arc Reactor roared to life.
The reactor was roughly the size of the original prototype housed at Stark Industries headquarters, though Tony had redesigned the system extensively. Its energy efficiency now exceeded the original by more than threefold.
Power surged through the satellite's internal conduits.
The recoil cannon charged.
Then fired.
In the vacuum of space, the weapon released a silent scream.
Three massive beams of condensed light erupted forward side by side like celestial blades piercing through the darkness itself.
The incoming object didn't dodge.
If anything, it accelerated.
Like a sprinter launching into a final burst before crossing the finish line.
Then the collision happened.
Tony hadn't exaggerated Lucy's firepower.
The recoil cannon truly possessed enough destructive force to obliterate a massive asteroid.
The clash between energy and matter detonated into a blinding tidal wave of white light that flooded the entire surveillance screen.
For several seconds, nobody could see anything.
Then the image stabilized again.
Tony's eyes widened.
The object was completely unhard.
Not damaged.
Not slowed.
If anything, it seed to be moving even faster now.
It didn't even acknowledge Lucy's attack, almost as though the recoil cannon blast had been too insignificant for it to notice.
"That's impossible," Tony muttered.
"My calculations were perfect. The recoil output matched projected values exactly…"
Clearly, Tony still wasn't used to the idea that his inventions could simply fail.
He would learn eventually.
The dark object surged directly into Earth's gravitational field under satellite observation. Atmospheric friction ignited its surface, wrapping the entire figure in blazing fire as it descended like an oversized teor crashing toward the planet.
Instantly, S.W.O.R.D. headquarters erupted into chaos.
Steve Rogers raised the global alert level to maximum.
Calls flooded in nonstop from the World Security Council, the White House, and the Pentagon. Every powerful figure on Earth suddenly wanted answers from Nick Fury.
What do we do?
Do we have a plan?
Most of them hated Fury on a personal level.
But they trusted his competence.
That was the real reason he still held power despite years of controversy and questionable accounting practices.
And this ti, things felt even worse.
Drex Valen was gone from S.W.O.R.D.
Without him standing at the center of everything, even the organization itself seed nervous.
Truthfully, Drex had resigned partly because of that exact problem.
He had no interest in becoming humanity's eternal savior.
The weight of that expectation was unbearable.
Sure, remaining Earth's invincible guardian would've cented his legend forever.
But Drex Valen had never needed validation from anyone.
"Calculating projected impact zone based on speed, angle, and descent trajectory!"
One of the S.W.O.R.D. researchers shouted through a sheen of nervous sweat.
Nobody in the room blinked.
Nobody breathed.
They simply watched the burning object fall toward Earth.
User Comments
0 comments from readers