The alien warship hung in silence, cloaked in shadows just beyond the Moon's edge. It was vast—miles long, its black hull lined with pulse-lights that blinked like distant stars. Invisible to Earth's satellites. Watching. Waiting.
Inside the command chamber, a low hum filled the air. Rows of consoles pulsed with strange symbols. Holographic maps floated in midair, displaying Earth, its orbiting satellites, and the exact trajectory of every returning scout ship.
Khoraz stood still, his hands behind his back, facing the viewport. Earth spun slowly below—blue, green, and fragile.
Behind him, a door slid open with a whisper. A lieutenant approached, his voice cautious.
"The first eight Dorvak are stable. Neural chips installed. No signs of rejection."
Khoraz didn't turn. "And the eggs?"
"Still in cryo-stasis. We're preparing the release pods. Once in Earth's upper atmosphere, they'll scatter across the major zones. Urban centers first."
Silence.
Khoraz finally spoke, but his voice was distant. "They think they can control them. The Oracle believes this will bring balance. But I've seen what the Dorvak become... when they feed, when they evolve."
He touched the glass, as if trying to reach through it. "We are seeding extinction."
The lieutenant shifted uncomfortably. "Then why follow through?"
Khoraz glanced back. "Because questioning the Oracle is heresy. And because... part of me wants to see what happens."
Deep beneath the Ural Mountains, in the last remaining fortified global military shelter, a round chamber buzzed with low voices and shifting tensions. The Emergency Earth Defense Council (EEDC) had convened.
Thirty-nine generals from the last surviving nations were seated in a cold, circular hall lined with armored steel. The air was thick with fatigue, tension—and the weight of billions of dead.
General Rajan Verma of India stood at the center, adjusting the projection table as data streamed across its surface. "Only four nations have made any progress," he began. "India, China, Japan, and South Korea. Partial reverse-engineering has yielded functional, though limited, results."
A map displayed alien wreckage sites and converted labs.
General Nakamura of Japan leaned forward. "We've replicated their short-range propulsion tech on two interceptor crafts. Plasma blasters function, but output is reduced by 80%. Our power cells can't handle the load. Their battery systems—" he paused, eyes narrowing, "—are grown, not built. Some sort of organic crystal compound that regulates energy like a living organ."
"Same findings here," added General Li from China. "We recovered a ship core. Inside it was... not a reactor, but something closer to a nervous system. Alive, or at least bio-responsive. When our scientists probed it with Earth tech, it shut down entirely."
Korean Defense Chief Eun-Jae tapped a control. A 3D rendering of a plasma rifle appeared. "We duplicated the casing. The weapon fires, but the energy disperses too quickly. Our materials can't channel it without degrading. The alien metals are non-periodic—elements we don't even have on our table. Some don't follow standard atomic behavior."
From across the table, a Russian general scoffed. "So we have toys we can't power and ships we can't fly. This council is a funeral."
General Rajan's tone sharpened. "We are not here to mourn. We're here to adapt. We've managed to integrate alien navigation AI into one drone squad. It's crude, but it responds to enemy signals. That means we can track them. Maybe intercept communications."
One of the American generals stood. "That's a start. Our intel suggests they use a form of quantum entanglement for data relay. Instantaneous. Global jamming won't work. But—if we can hijack the network…"
A young Chinese scientist leaned in from the observer row. "Excuse me, generals. If I may—what we've found is even more disturbing. The alien tech evolves. It learns from failure. One crashed fighter that survived a plasma burst—next models came in with plating that neutralized that frequency. They're adapting to us faster than we're adapting to them."
Silence fell. The only sound was the low hum of the chamber's filtration systems.
Then General Eun-Jae broke it. "We need a new paradigm. No longer brute-force engineering. We need to interface—biological to biological. Neural-link experimentation must begin. If we can't copy them, maybe we become part of them."
A murmur of discomfort.
"Hybrid warfare?" someone asked.
"Call it what you will," Eun-Jae said. "But if we don't evolve alongside this war, we'll be extinct before winter."
General Rajan turned back to the map. "Then let's begin. Extract every salvageable part. Build what we can. Test what we can't. And for god's sake—keep them from finding where we are."
Kael and Sira – Practice Grounds, Eastern Resistance Bunker
The air shimmered with heat as two figures clashed in the open courtyard beneath the rising sun. Kael's blades blurred, tracing arcs of silver light through the air, while Sira's crystalline spear pulsed with violet energy. Their strikes met with thunderclaps, the impact sending shockwaves across the cracked ground.
"You're holding back," Sira said, breath steady despite the intensity.
"I'm calculating," Kael replied. "If I strike full force, you'll lose your footing."
She grinned. "Then I guess I should stop going easy too."
The next clash sent sparks spiraling into the air.
Not far away, automated sentries tracked their motion, silently analyzing patterns—both for training and defense. A soft beep from Kael's wrist console interrupted the rhythm. He glanced down. A red glyph flickered for a moment… then vanished.
"That's new," he muttered.
---
Neil and Reya – Coffee Table, Observation Deck
Neil sat at a small metal table, overlooking the domed sanctuary's interior garden—what little remained of peace in a fractured world. Steam curled from the coffee mug between his hands, the bitter scent mixing with the synthetic earthiness of hydro-grown herbs nearby.
Reya sipped her drink slowly, her eyes thoughtful. "You've changed," she said, not accusingly. "Not just the powers. The way you look at people."
Neil chuckled softly. "When a city crumbles under you, and you climb out of ash with voices in your head—it kind of reorders your priorities."
She smiled faintly, brushing hair behind her ear. "Still haven't told me what the mirror showed you."
"I'm not sure it was meant to be understood yet."
They sat in silence for a beat. The hum of systems in the walls. The distant clang of metal. A world rebuilding—tentatively.
Then a tremor passed through the deck. Subtle. Like something shifting far below.
Neil frowned. "Did you feel that?"
Reya nodded, placing her cup down. "Something's wrong."
---
Riven – Outskirts of the Dome, Recon Patrol
The electric bike roared low over the fractured road as Riven zipped through the outskirts of the dome's perimeter. Dust coiled in his wake. The sky above was washed with gray—a false calm draped over real danger.
He checked the rearview mirror. Clear.
Then again.
This time—words shimmered in the reflection like breath on glass:
"ALERT! DORVAK."
His hand tightened on the grip. The mirror flickered—now showing a faint image of eight massive silhouettes standing in formation beneath an alien dome.
"Shit," he muttered. "Not now."
He tapped his comms. "This is Riven. We've got a warning. Dorvak. Possibly active deployment."
Beijing Outskirts – Ground Zero of the First Dorvak Emergence
The skies above China were ablaze with contrails of missiles and burning wreckage. Amid scorched city ruins, the ground trembled with every step of the beasts. Towering at nearly twenty feet, the Dorvak were monsters of pure muscle and scale—hide like obsidian armor, eyes glowing red like twin molten cores.
Airstrikes hammered the area in unrelenting waves—hypersonic missiles, bunker-busters, EMP charges. Nothing stopped them.
Thirty Dorvak had emerged from the first alien pod that crashed on the northern border. Now, only fourteen remained—but those fourteen had erased entire districts.
The Chinese military issued constant broadcast loops: "Civilians evacuate to Zone D7. Dorvak identified—do not engage without Class-A clearance. Repeat—do not engage..."
It didn't help.
Bullets ricocheted off their hides like pebbles. High-caliber rounds barely slowed them. The creatures moved with brutal, purposeful speed—hurling tanks aside, breaching bunkers, tracking movement like predators bred for one purpose.
---
Moscow, Washington, and New Delhi – New Impact Zones
Ten more pods screamed through the atmosphere like falling suns.
Russia's northern oil fields went dark first. Then a flash flood of alerts from the U.S. midwest—military satellites confirmed five Dorvak-class organisms in each location. Civilian zones were being evacuated in panic.
But it was India's alert that triggered the global neural net into red protocol.
"FIVE DORVAK PODS CONFIRMED—IMPACT ZONE: MADHYA PRADESH. ACTIVATION SEQUENCE BEGUN."
Resistance Bunker Alpha – Copper Unit Deployment
Neil pulled his new combat suit on in silence—sleek, matte-black plating layered over adaptive nanoweave. The EEDC insignia pulsed faintly on the chest, while the Indian flag glowed just beneath his left shoulder. On the back, bold and unmistakable: NEIL – INDIA.
Across the prep deck, Kael's suit hummed to life. A stylized falcon adorned his back under the name KAEL – SOUTH AFRICA. His gauntlets locked in with magnetic precision, crackling faintly with stored kinetic energy.
Sira secured her lightweight armor—part plate, part fabric infused with reactive fiber. Her spear vibrated softly, syncing with her suit's pulse sensor. SIRA – BRAZIL was etched between her shoulder blades in tactical script, the flag sharp beneath.
Riven's suit was lean, minimalist, optimized for agility. Black and dark chrome, with micro-rigging for his custom weapons. RIVEN – JAPAN flared briefly as he holstered his pistols and checked the drone-hook on his back.
The Copper-class transport hovered at the bay doors, engines thrumming as it waited.
Reya stood near the mission interface, scrolling data despite the signal noise. "Five pods. That's twenty-five Dorvak minimum. You'll be going in blind—jammers are active across the sector. No sat relays. No eyes."
Neil tightened his wrist mount. "We've fought worse."
She met his gaze. "But not this."
He smirked. "Then we make a new metric."
Kael strode onto the ramp. "Mission's the same—contain the outbreak."
Sira followed, glancing at the screen. "Or improvise a solution big enough to matter."
Riven paused at the door, his reflection catching in the metallic panel. No message this time. Just his own face, set like steel.
---
Chopper Transport – En Route
The sky outside was a blur of stormclouds and static bursts. Inside, the mission feed blinked red.
Five large heat signatures. Each moving erratically. Forest cover: dense. Civilian zones: under evac.
Neil stared at the map. "They're not scattering. They're coordinating."
Sira raised an eyebrow. "You think they're sentient?"
"Or guided," Kael added. "Remote-linked. Just like those first controlled ones we saw in the footage."
Behind them, on the wall screen, the global network of Awakened Units lit up—every combatant now clad in upgraded suits from the Earth Exo-Defense Coalition (EEDC). Each suit bore country flags, names, and real-time telemetry.
Forty nations. Hundreds of operatives. All finally unified.
Riven leaned forward, narrowing his eyes at the screen. "Let's just hope they didn't upgrade too late."
Neil grinned. "For them… or for us?"
The ship banked into descent. The forest below blazed red with infrared signals—each one a Dorvak.
Then came the voice over comms—cold, distorted, emotionless:
"Alert: Dorvak signatures evolving. New bioforms detected. Engage with caution."
The Chopper Unit locked eyes one last time. The hatch opened.
They dropped.
Lunar Orbit – Alien Mothership Observation Deck
The command chamber aboard the alien warship dimmed as the Oracle stepped forward, robes fluttering slightly in the gravity-modulated air. His form was blurred, indistinct—half-seen, as though space itself bent around him. Before him, a massive projection displayed live battle feeds: cities ablaze, Dorvak rampaging through streets, and flashes of human resistance trying desperately to hold ground.
Behind him stood Khoraz, silent, arms clasped behind his back, his face unreadable.
"They're deploying Awakened," Khoraz said, eyes flicking over the glowing dots on the tactical overlays.
The Oracle's voice was calm, unnervingly smooth. "Good. Let them come."
He raised a hand and waved it through the air. Ten red glyphs shimmered—scouts launched from orbit, each descending toward a different battlefield across the planet.
"I want to see how many have emerged," the Oracle whispered. "And how strong they truly are."
Khoraz hesitated. "You believe they're a threat?"
"I believe," the Oracle said, turning slowly, "that every species finds a way to bite before it dies."
---
India – Forest Combat Zone, Dorvak Invasion Site
The sound of plasma blasts echoed through the trees, bright streaks of energy slamming into towering Dorvak beasts. Human soldiers, equipped with experimental rifles, took cover and fired in quick bursts. The blue-white flashes scorched the creatures' hides—but only barely. Scorch marks appeared, smoking slightly, but the Dorvak didn't slow.
Instead, they roared and charged.
One tore through a tree like it was paper. Another grabbed a fleeing soldier and bit through his torso, tossing the halves in opposite directions. Blood soaked the earth. The Dorvak sniffed the air, tracking movement with a predator's certainty. They could smell fear. Smell blood. And they were hungry.
---
Hilltop Overwatch – Copper Unit
From a jagged cliff overlooking the chaos below, Neil stood beside Kael, Sira, and Riven. Smoke trailed from distant fires. Screams carried on the wind. The forest was no longer a battlefield—it was a feeding ground.
Neil clenched his fists. "They deployed them in high-density zones. Delhi. São Paulo. Chongqing. Chicago. All places with high civilian count."
Kael murmured, "What's their plan…?"
Sira's jaw tightened. "Genocide."
Riven exhaled, checking the readout on his bow's energy core. "Let's clear the field before there's no one left to save."
They exchanged silent nods—and scattered.
Kael vanished in a burst of kinetic blink.
Sira leapt off the cliff, spear igniting mid-air.
Riven revved his bike from behind the rocks and disappeared in a blur.
---
Neil – Alone, Approaching Hostiles
Neil crouched, then sprinted down the slope—faster than any human should move. Trees whipped past him. His suit synced to his neural commands, reducing friction, redirecting kinetic energy with every step.
Ahead, two Dorvak loomed over a burning outpost—one feasting, the other tearing open a transport vehicle.
Neil's pace didn't falter.
He reached out his hand, and with a flash of internal light—the sword came to him.
Not summoned from the suit. Not material.
But born of thought.
A shimmering blade of shifting energy, solid yet fluid, etched with pulsating runes only he could read.
Inside his mind, the voice returned—calm, focused, as if waiting:
"Neil... do you see now? They are not beasts. They are catalysts. Awaken your second form."
Neil narrowed his eyes.
"No more tests. No more running."
He raised the sword.