The final major contribution to the Protheus project ca from Dr. Bruce Banner's research division.
His team developed the vessel's secondary weapons system:
The High-Energy Gamma-Ray Array.
Unlike the ship's main guns, the gamma-ray array was designed primarily for point-defense operations.
If hostile fighter squadrons attempted to close in on the fleet, the system could unleash concentrated gamma radiation at light speed, instantly vaporizing incoming targets before they reached engagent range.
Wakanda also played a critical role in the project.
Under Princess Shuri's leadership, Wakandan scientists successfully developed both the anti-gravity generators and the artificial gravity systems used throughout the fleet.
The anti-gravity generators allowed the Protheus to maintain stable hovering positions even within a planet's gravitational field.
The artificial gravity systems solved another problem entirely.
During long-term space travel, they generated Earth-like gravity throughout the ship, preventing crew mbers and cargo from drifting helplessly through the corridors.
The technology was hardly unique.
Across the galaxy, virtually every advanced civilization incorporated artificial gravity into its spacecraft.
There was a good reason for that.
Rocket Raccoon had once escaped a space prison by disabling its gravity systems, throwing the entire facility into chaos.
More importantly, prolonged exposure to weightlessness caused serious health issues.
Artificial gravity preserved both physical well-being and operational efficiency.
For humanity's first true fleet, it was considered indispensable.
The first production run consisted of ten warships.
At the center stood the flagship:
Protheus.
Accompanying it were nine support vessels.
Three battleships.
Three destroyers.
One service ship.
One electronic warfare and communications vessel.
One logistics and supply ship.
Protheus and the three battleships ford the fleet's primary striking force.
Each carried heavy weapons capable of exchanging fire with enemy capital ships across interstellar distances.
The destroyers served a different purpose.
Loaded with missiles and carrier-based fighters, they specialized in screening operations and preventing hostile strike craft from reaching the larger vessels.
The Protheus itself had evolved from the original Helicarrier concept.
Its overall length was roughly twice that of a standard Helicarrier.
When the anti-gravity engines activated, the massive vessel rose into the air with intimidating majesty.
Particle thrusters adjusted its position with smooth precision.
Watching the enormous warship ascend was enough to leave observers speechless.
Yet compared to the colossal motherships employed by the Chitauri or the warships fielded by Ronan the Accuser, it remained relatively modest in size.
It wasn't remotely comparable to the city-sized flying fortresses common among advanced civilizations.
That limitation was unavoidable.
Alien empires typically constructed their largest vessels in asteroid belts.
The environnt offered vast quantities of raw materials and, more importantly, near-zero gravity.
Earth didn't have that luxury.
Humanity's first flagship faced two major constraints.
The first was structural integrity.
Build a ship too large on Earth, and its own weight could compromise the hull during construction.
The second was resource consumption.
Purchasing enough tal to construct a truly gigantic warship would send global commodity prices into chaos and inflate costs beyond reason.
After all, humanity currently drew resources from a single planet.
How much tal could one world realistically provide?
Creating one of the galaxy's city-sized motherships might require stripping entire worlds of their mineral wealth.
For that reason, Earth's first-generation fleet focused on practicality rather than sheer size.
The long-term plan was different.
Once permanent installations existed on the Moon or within the asteroid belt, humanity could begin harvesting extraterrestrial resources and constructing shipyards in space.
Only then would it beco feasible to build a true supercarrier on the scale of a floating city.
Among the fleet's four primary combat vessels, the Protheus remained the most powerful.
Its internal facilities were significantly more extensive than those of the other ships.
In addition to its wormhole generator, it housed a dedicated interstellar marine barracks.
S.W.O.R.D.'s superhuman operatives would reside there during deep-space deploynts.
The other three capital ships followed a different design philosophy.
Instead of marine facilities, they carried specialized Space Iron Man battalions.
Their primary weapons also differed.
Each was equipped with a massive electromagnetic cannon.
The acceleration rails stretched almost the entire length of the vessel itself.
Every ship in the fleet, including the Protheus, carried fifty transformable space fighters.
Together, the ten warships represented the pinnacle of human engineering.
A fusion of cutting-edge science, advanced manufacturing, and countless technological breakthroughs.
The fleet was, quite literally, the physical embodint of humanity's intelligence and determination.
Ironically, if this fleet were ever turned against Earth, modern civilization would struggle to resist it.
Conquest could co frighteningly fast.
Drex Valen thought the praise surrounding the project was a little excessive.
Still, he couldn't deny the results.
When faced with the possibility of fighting one of the galaxy's great empires, humanity's research and industrial output had exploded at a pace that bordered on the absurd.
It almost looked like cheating.
Then again, the reaction made sense.
The information extracted from the captured Skrulls had terrified everyone.
Even decades-old intelligence described the Skrull Empire as one of the dominant powers in known space.
And that information was outdated.
The empire had survived and continued expanding ever since.
To Earth's governnts, military leaders, and scientists, the situation felt existential.
Humanity stood on the edge of extinction.
Under circumstances like those, political rivalries and economic competition suddenly seed irrelevant.
Everyone wanted the sa thing.
Survival.
Or victory.
Preferably both.
That shared determination accomplished the impossible.
A project originally expected to require five to ten years reached completion in only a few months.
Which was precisely why Drex considered humanity's progress ridiculous.
Spacefaring warships equipped with jump technology were no longer theoretical.
Given enough ti, this fleet could eventually reach any world in the Milky Way.
The leap in capability dwarfed anything humanity had previously achieved.
Moon landings.
Mars missions.
Deep-space probes.
Compared to this, those milestones seed almost primitive.
Standing beneath the shadow of the Protheus, Steve Rogers stared upward in awe.
"I always thought humanity would need another century before we built sothing like this."
Drex shook his head.
"Honestly, I think we're already late."
Steve glanced at him.
Drex continued.
"Wakanda possessed spacecraft technology long before the rest of the world."
His gaze drifted toward the distant vessel.
"They chose isolation instead."
"Like Atlantis, they beca more myth than nation."
He shrugged.
"Whether that was because they were protective of their technology or because they didn't trust the rest of humanity with it, I couldn't say."
Historically, Wakanda had reasons for caution.
Colonial powers had attempted to exploit the kingdom's resources.
During World War II, outside forces had also sought to invade and plunder its wealth.
Each attempt ended in failure.
The Black Panthers of successive generations ensured that much.
Over ti, Wakanda withdrew from the world and guarded its secrets.
Only after the collapse of colonial empires and major shifts in global politics did the kingdom gradually begin participating in international affairs again.
This ti, however, Wakanda and Atlantis had both contributed substantially to humanity's survival effort.
As a result, neither civilization was excluded from the fleet initiative.
Everything was ready.
The fleet was complete.
The defenses were prepared.
Now all that remained was waiting for the Skrulls to arrive.
What Drex couldn't possibly know was that the Skrulls had already frightened themselves half to death.
At this point, invading Earth was the last thing they wanted to do.
...
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