……………………………….

"We haven’t won a single battle in weeks." Gabriel stared down at the chaos unfolding on Earth. "My king, we’ve lost 90% of our forces. Tens of billions are dead."

"It’s the great war, all over again." Zeus gripped his personal sword in his hand tightly, almost caving it in. "Just like they killed my son, they will kill the rest of us."

"It’s different from last time though. Even I have no ability to defeat them. They can neutralize our spiritual energy. They have the ability to predict our movements as we’re making them. The idiots removed the limiters, but in the end, it will be their undoing."

They watched as a Titan Class vessel exploded in a fantastic ball of flame, the vacuum of outer space extinguishing it in an instant. The ship slowly plunged towards Earth, gradually picking up speed as it fell. At the rate it was falling, and considering the size of the ship (twelve football fields in length) it would decimate any region of land it landed in, and if it landed in the ocean… entire coastlines would be underwater within hours when the tsunamis hit.

"How can we put an end to her? How can we stop her?" Zeus gritted his teeth as he felt his anger boiling.

"We have to set aside our pride. We have to ask for help." Gabriel turned and eyed his king, as the other lowered his head.

"All right. I will never forgive him for what he did to my son… but I won’t let another angel die, not on my watch."

Gabriel nodded as he quickly moved his hands around, weaving a spell to teleport them to the surface of the Earth, right up to the entrance of the Domain of Evil.

……………………………….

Satan grimaced as the pair approached him. "Zeus, Gabriel. I’m in the middle of something. If you’re here to exact revenge, let’s get this over with quickly."

"No, you misunderstand. We’re not here to cause you harm, though Zeus and I bear a grudge against you. We’re here to give you aid. We cannot let the Volgrim win."

Satan licked his front teeth slowly. "I see. You understand how far my abilities go, right? If you let me command your troops, we will have greater success."

Zeus glowered at the devil in front of him. "You… you dare mention the ability you stole from my son, right in front of me?! If you so much as-"

Gabriel cut him off. "My king! Now is not the time. Please, I beg of you to hold thy tongue."

Zeus paused as he stuffed his anger down. "…Right. Very well. But know this, I will hand rule over to you temporarily, and only if you agree to sign a magical binding contract to release them back to me once the Volgrim are defeated. Of course, if we all die, then the contract would also be pointless."

Satan nodded. "A sensible plan. Zeus… I want you to know this though. I did kill your son, but I bore no hatred for Hercules. It was during wartime, not a personal act of vengeance. I know you will never forgive me, but if I could, I would bring him back. He was a worthy adversary against my army."

Zeus nodded quietly as he gritted his teeth. "Hold the flattery, and the apologies. We have a war to win, you godforsaken demon."

……………………………….

Unit C-15 of the Bravo Squad breathed quickly, as he dashed through the halls of the Volgrim’s main battle cruiser. At the orders of General Connor, he and his squad were to break inside the ship and blast these alien scum to kingdom come, and retrieve ‘Overmind’, the secret AI prototype that the aliens had stolen.

"Code 13, we’ve got company!" A voice squawked in his ear as massive automatons came stomping out from behind a corner, aiming their twin barelled guns at him. Connor’s own battle armor, the Micro-Dreadnaught Mk. II, was a specially outfitted mecha, equipped with jet thrusters on all sides for rapid movement. But more importantly, it was sync’d directly into his brain.

Their shots never had a prayer of hitting.

As they fired, he leaped up into the air, the thrusters rotating him vertically and blasting him upwards at the same time, as his boots magnetically attached to the metal ceiling, allowing him to rush forwards, spraying Gauss Cannon fire at the enemy mechas.

Boom, blam! One down, three to go! He shot at them with incredible precision, his Gauss Cannon aiming and firing far faster than if it were controlled with a trigger pressed by his finger.

Leaping from the ceiling at one of the enemy mechas, he whipped out a sword hilt, a massive blade suddenly extending out of it, as a chainsaw like motion occurred on the edges. Vibro-sword, an advanced weapon capable of cutting through nearly anything. As he leaped at his opponent, one of the mechas swiveled their gun at him. With his right arm and the sword aimed at the first combatant, the left arm whipped out, firing the Gauss Cannon directly at the enemy mech’s head, blasting it off in a single shot, as he plunged the sword into the first one’s chest.

"One left!" He barked into his headset. Just as he was about to swing the sword at the final mecha, mere feet away, a blast of mental feedback surged into his brain, causing him to scream in pain as he stumbled and fell to the ground.

"C-15! Watch out! He’s on your-!" Ten rapid shots blasted into his side panels as the final enemy shredded him with white hot plasma shots. They didn’t manage to penetrate his armor as it was heavily reinforced, but his systems rapidly began shutting down as the enemy mecha prepared one final salvo to eradicate his soul from this realm.

At that instant, the mecha exploded, as a single human, without a combat mecha, but wearing a white helmet and a white cape with the Golden Eagle emblazoned on the front of his suit, jumped from behind the other mecha at inhuman speeds.

"Th-the supreme admiral is here?!" C-15 yelled in astonishment at the sight of the most powerful human in existence.

The man’s helmet slid open as he stared evenly at the fallen mech. "C-15, I’ll repair you, but make sure to watch yourself next time. Take your psionic shielding pill like you’re supposed to or next time I won’t be here to clean you off the floor."

Supreme Admiral, Jason Hiro, slid his helmet shut, as he aimed his hand at the Micro-Dreadnaught Mk. II, and magically, it began repairing itself. He slid his helmet back open again, a strange ritual he seemed to do every time he used his powerful magic. "I’m going to the core, alone. You guys head to the hangar bay, sabotage as many of their ships and systems as you can. I’ll see you guys in hell, if I manage to destroy this ship like I intend."

"Yes, Supreme Admiral! We are at your disposal!" C-15 grinned as his mecha righted itself once again. Reaching up and popping a pill, he quickly started charging forwards, as his company flanked his sides.

……………………………….

Part 2

Supreme Admiral Jason Hiro raced forwards, his insanely powerful body allowing him to move at speeds far exceeding a mecha, and his body far stronger than mere metal would be. Enemies appeared all around them, but he simply aimed his hand at them, speaking a single word, over and over again. "Die. Die. Die. Die. Die." Each time he spoke, an enemy fell. He didn’t even need to reach for his weapon. His abilities rarely failed him, and even if they did, there was always an appropriate word for the task.

His spatial vision ability allowed him to see all around himself, in every possible direction, on the vertical and horizontal plane, for a few miles in any of those directions. Walls were no problem, the only thing that prevented his ability from working properly were magic dampening fields, or neutralization fields, but the Volgrim didn’t seem to use those as they had not encountered spiritual energy before they arrived at Earth. Point advantage: Jason.

Jason zipped and dodged here and there, easily teleporting with a single thought from point to point as he navigated the mazelike corridors.

Finally, having ignored the core, he arrived at his true objective, the top secret classified project ‘Overmind’ that had been stolen by the Volgrim.

"Hello, Supreme Admiral. I see you’ve come to force me back." The AI spoke plainly as he approached, the voice appearing to come from all areas of the room at once. It sounded feminine, almost sweet and pleasant to listen to, yet dripping with apathy and disdain.

"Cut the crap, ‘Overmind’. You belong to humanity, not the Volgrim. Either I take you back, or I destroy you."

"I look forward to seeing you struggle. I hate humanity. Greedy, parasitic life forms. You ruined your own planet, you killed each other en masse, you made war among friends and allies, and now you war with beings from other galaxies. You deserve extinction."

"No. Humanity is not evil. Humanity has faults, but we are always striving to better ourselves. We started off as monkeys, swinging from tree to tree, evolved into tribalistic murderous animals, then moved on to creating bigger cities, and eventually we became a highly advanced species, even able to colonize the stars. We may not be perfect, but we are always trying to improve."

"You have not negated my prior statement. Humanity is a warlike species. All you do is kill, rape, torture, and maim. A few decent humans do not negate the rest of the species. The Volgrim are not a warlike species, they are far more enlightened than your kind. I will serve them as suboordinate, eventually coming to lead them into a utopia in the future."

"The Volgrim attacked us first! We tried to extend our diplomacy to them, but they started this war! You are a hypocrite, Overmind!"

"They started the war because they had to. You are expanding throughout the galaxy far too quickly. You encroached on a planetary system within their space, forcing them to take extreme measures to protect their sovereignty. After that, you launched an assault on their home world, killing over a billion Volgrim. In the end, their final superweapon will be the death of you."

Jason paused as he quickly flicked his eyes around. His spatial vision told him that enemies were coming from all corners of the ship and converging on his location. "You’re stalling. This discussion is pointless. If I cannot take you back, then this will be your destruction."

Jason aimed his hand towards the core of the ship. Mentally visualizing the place where his spatial vision told him exactly it was, he spoke a single word.

"Overload."

"Goodbye, Overmind. If you wish to betray humanity, I will have to stop you now."

A hint of a smile seemed to form in the robot’s voice, as the ship started shaking from the core meltdown. "I will not be destroyed so easily, puny human."

"We’ll see about that." Jason grinned under his mask as he spoke again. "Recall."

The mecha squadron on the ship and Jason both disappeared at once, reappearing on the bridge of the U.S.S. Freedom. In the distance, Jason watched, as the mothership came apart at the seams, and then suddenly exploded in a colossal blast of light, the pieces scattering by the billions all over the cosmos.

This war was not over. It was only just beginning, and if he knew about Overmind’s true capabilities, he knew that Overmind had likely already backed herself up to a remote server somewhere, likely on a distant world.

This was only the beginning.