The looming threat of a Skrull invasion left little room for delays.
Ti was running out.
After lengthy discussions, the mbers of the Security Council agreed on a temporary solution. Rather than waiting for the full United Nations process to conclude, the five permanent mbers would begin confidential negotiations imdiately.
morandums of understanding would be signed.
Preliminary agreents would be drafted.
Earth's major powers would begin coordinating their response to an alien threat before formal UN resolutions could be passed.
One by one, the council mbers disconnected from the conference and rushed to relay the news to their governnts, advisors, and military leadership.
Before the eting ended, Drex Valen offered one final piece of advice.
"Politicians decide whether a war is fought."
His gaze swept across the room.
"Commanders decide how it's fought."
"The two roles exist for a reason."
He folded his arms.
"History is full of military disasters caused by politicians interfering with battlefield decisions, replacing commanders at the worst possible monts, or issuing orders they had no business giving."
His expression remained calm.
"If you'd prefer Earth not to be destroyed, let professionals handle professional work."
The room exchanged looks.
To most people present, there was only one obvious professional capable of leading humanity through a conflict of this scale.
Drex Valen.
Unfortunately for them, he had no interest in the job.
"Forget it."
He imdiately shut the idea down.
"I'll let Umbrella handle production contracts for the fleet."
Then he stood.
"But if you're expecting to lead Earth's war effort personally, find soone else."
His tone made it clear the discussion was over.
Drex had no desire to beco the public face of humanity's defense.
He understood sothing many heroes ignored.
Public opinion mattered.
In the Marvel Universe, it always had.
Tony Stark had once turned public sentint in his favor by exposing Justin Hamr's attempts to replicate Iron Man technology during congressional hearings.
After Hydra's infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. was exposed, Natasha Romanoff released classified files to the public, triggering the organization's collapse.
The Avengers gained legitimacy because the public viewed them as heroes after the Battle of New York.
The Sokovia Accords erged because public outrage followed the disasters in Nigeria and Sokovia.
Again and again, public perception shaped events.
And public opinion was fickle.
Heroes could save the world a dozen tis, only to beco villains in the public eye after a single dia campaign.
Drex had no intention of volunteering for that role.
Being a businessman was far less troubleso.
With that, he left the eting behind.
For most of Earth, building an interstellar fleet bordered on the impossible.
For Drex?
It was practically routine.
The required technologies already existed in his mind.
Wide-area stellar radar systems.
Tractor beam technology.
Advanced starship armor.
Interstellar propulsion systems.
Short-range stellar jump drives.
Plasma weaponry.
Miniaturized high-output laser systems.
Dark matter reactors.
Artificial gravity.
Biochanical exoskeletons.
Anti-gravity propulsion.
Orbital deploynt technology.
Quantum communication networks.
Holographic projection systems.
Matter storage and fabrication technology.
Energy-based space suits.
Cryogenic stasis pods.
Space mining equipnt.
Ultra-high-speed 3D manufacturing systems.
And much more.
Construction of Earth's first true fleet began on an isolated archipelago far from civilization.
Transport aircraft landed continuously on the largest island in the chain.
There, hidden from public view, the primary shipyard took shape.
Its centerpiece would be humanity's first flagship.
The Protheus.
The na symbolized fire.
Knowledge.
Hope.
Although the vessel was being built specifically to counter a potential Skrull invasion, humanity couldn't help but dream beyond war.
If Earth survived...
If they won...
Then the stars themselves might finally beco accessible.
The Protheus represented that future.
It was the flagship of the planned orbital defense fleet.
A project assembled from the finest technologies on Earth.
Hundreds of elite scientists contributed to its design.
Many possessed intellects that would have been considered extraordinary by any standard.
The construction effort drew resources and specialists from across the globe, becoming one of the largest engineering projects in human history.
From a distance, however, the vessel looked surprisingly simple.
Human spacecraft design had inherited more from practicality than aesthetics.
The Protheus resembled a gigantic rectangular block.
A massive armored structure with powerful vector-thrust engines mounted on both sides of the stern.
When activated, the engines emitted brilliant streams of blue particles.
The result felt futuristic.
But not particularly elegant.
Several United Nations representatives privately disliked the appearance.
None voiced objections.
After all, Drex had made his position abundantly clear.
Professionals handled technical decisions.
Amateurs did not.
Nobody wanted to be rembered as the person who tried to redesign a starship because they thought it should "look cooler."
The vessel's heart was a massive dark matter reactor.
Developed and constructed under Tony Stark's leadership, it generated astonishing amounts of energy.
In theory, a single reactor could sustain the entire planet's current energy consumption.
The enormous vector engines were also Stark's work.
They possessed an unusual feature.
If circumstances demanded it, the Protheus could literally fight while facing away from its enemy.
By overloading the propulsion system, the engines could function as colossal energy weapons.
The resulting particle stream rivaled the firepower of a capital ship's main battery.
Naturally, the vessel was also equipped with a short-range jump drive.
By galactic standards, the technology wasn't especially advanced.
Even Peter Quill's Ravager ship carried similar equipnt.
Compared to the Kryptonian Empire's jump systems, which could cross hundreds of light-years in a single leap, Earth's version was primitive.
For humanity, however, it was revolutionary.
The technological imbalance was almost comical.
In so areas, Earth's scientific developnt was astonishingly advanced.
In others, even common pirate vessels surpassed them by orders of magnitude.
The jump drive itself was developed by Dr. Erik Selvig and his spatial research team.
Interestingly, several mbers of that team were forr students Selvig had personally recruited from psychiatric institutions after recognizing their brilliance.
Another key contributor was Reed Richards.
Leading his own research division, Richards helped design the Protheus's escort fighters.
The flagship carried fifty of them.
Each fighter incorporated Chitauri shield technology and featured a versatile weapon package.
Electromagnetic cannons.
High-energy lasers.
Plasma weaponry.
Miniature Stark Industries missile systems.
But humanity couldn't resist adding sothing unique.
The fighters were transformable.
During planetary operations, they could shift into humanoid combat forms, functioning as battlefield robots rather than conventional spacecraft.
The concept combined practicality with imagination.
A distinctly human solution.
And one that looked remarkably similar to the legendary variable fighters of classic science fiction.
As Earth's first interstellar fleet slowly took shape, humanity's future was beginning to change.
For the first ti in history, the stars no longer seed impossibly distant.
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