Existence itself held its breath. Waiting. For me. For my choice.
I looked again at the broken planet projected before me. Burning cities, Collapsed nations, Skeletal children, Warships preparing to fire, Missiles locked and ready, Noose tightening by the hour.
I inhaled sharply and closed my eyes, the breath rattling like thunder in my ribs. Held it. Then exhaled, calm and slow, like the executioner finally letting go of the blade.
"…F*ck it."
I muttered. Voice like a gunshot in a mausoleum.
"It's not my problem."
I stood up.
"Humanity's needed a restart for a while now anyway."
And in that instant, I felt it. Something inside me died. Not loudly. Not violently. Just a soft, final snap.
Like the last thread of who I used to be had finally burned away in the dark while somenthing twisted and twisted took root In Its place.
From the side of the control room, Invicta whistled low.
"Damn, you're one cold bastard, you know that?"
I looked at her. Her lips curled up, slow and wide. She'd been watching me like a hawk from the start, reading every flicker in my face.
"All my calculations said you'd pick the hero route. Save the world. Shoulder its weight like a good little soldier."
She stepped closer, boots clicking on polished steel. Tilted her head.
"But color me surprised."
She licked her black lips.
"And I f*cking love it."
She leaned in with that wicked glint in her eyes.
"You're fun as f*ck to be arround, darling."
Behind us, the ship rumbled. Another legion activated. More pods hissed open. And the world? It kept spinning toward the edge of the abyss.
"Say how many extra people can you carry?"
I asked, not quite looking at her. Invicta rolled her shoulders in a stretch, like she was being asked what size coffee she wanted.
"A million. Give or take."
Shrugged. Like it was nothing. I nodded slowly, gears already grinding in my head.
"One more thing… Can you find me the location of my battlebro..."
Before the words even finished forming, the air chirped and a fresh holographic window snapped open above us.
A satellite feed. A facility. Fenced. Covered. No insignia. No public record. Black site.
"They're in here,"
Invicta said flatly. Her tone was casual, but I could hear the undercurrent of disdain vibrating behind every syllable.
"Off the books dump. Your government tossed them in and forgot about them. Didn't get anything useful regarding you after you vanished… so they were labeled 'expendable.'"
I pinched the bridge of my nose. Hard.
"...Seriously. Did anyone ever tell you you're a walking natural disaster?"
She stuck her tongue out with zero shame, zero guilt, and maximum gremlin energy.
"What, don't like it?"
I sighed like a man whose patience was being worn thinner than nano fiber armor in a blender.
"I need a dropship. And a squad of your boys and girls,"
I said, bracing myself to argue, to plead, to convince her with charm or brute force or whatever worked. But before I could open my mouth again.
"Sure."
I blinked. She grinned. Wide. Like the cat that just greenlit Armageddon.
"Take a squad? Hell, take the whole f*cking legion if you want, and why end with one, take a few more hell take the entire sixteen legions for all I care"
I paused.
"...Seriously?"
"Well duh youre my hubby. You want to storm a black site and raze it to the ground to save your grumpy buddies? You go, darling."
I stared at her for a second longer, processing that this chaotic murder g*ddess had just handed me the keys to a g*dsdamn army like she was giving me the TV remote. My jaw tightened.
"Then load them up. We're going to get my brothers back."
She saluted playfully with two fingers.
"Roger that, Daddy."
I visibly flinched. My face twisted like I'd just bitten into a lemon made of shame and bad decisions.
"Seriously?"
I groaned. Invicta shrugged with that smug look that said yes and I will absolutely keep saying it.
"Yeah, seriously. Or would you prefer I be like this?"
Then her posture changed, her expression wiped clean, and her voice dropped into an unsettling, blank monotone.
"Yes, Commander. Orders received. Awaiting further instruction."
Her eyes didn't blink. Her limbs didn't twitch. Her entire vibe dropped into uncanny valley hell.
"Urrghh... yeah, thanks, no, that's creepy as f*ck."
I took a half step back. She grinned, life snapping back into her like a neon sign flickering on.
"Tch. No taste for android aesthetic, huh? Fine. Let's get you geared up, Commander Buzzkill."
She spun on her heel and strutted off. I followed, boots echoing through the clean corridor as we moved through a series of security bulkheads.
Each one hissed open with perfect precision. Then we reached the armory. And g*ds, what an armory it was.
The doors slid open with a deep metallic thud and before me was a cathedral of death. Floor to ceiling racks of weapons, gear, and armor.
Crates of munitions. Rows of mannequins in full combat suits. Drones flying overhead performing maintenance like angels oiling instruments of d*vine destruction.
Invicta gestured like a proud curator in a murder museum.
"Alright, suit up time, soldier boy."
She started yanking gear off racks and tossing it at me with the energy of a deranged quartermaster on a caffeine bender. First came the the armor plates.
"Here's your chest piece level nine nanoweave with ceramic reinforcement. Rated for everything short of a thirty call. Shoulder pauldrons, backplate, thigh guards, shin guards, gauntlets don't forget the groin shield. That sh*t's expensive to regrow."
She slapped it into place like she was building a tank out of Legos. Next, she handed me a laser pistol, sleek and matte black and an unactivated laser edged combat knive.
"Sidearm. Comes with a camera sight, auto target tagging, anti jam firmware, and a subdermal biometric lock keyed to your pulse, and a laser edged combat knive It will burn through any form of armor like hot knive through butter"
Then she pulled out the big one. A modular laser rifle, heavy and perfectly balanced.
"Main weapon. Fully integrated with the helmets HUD. Camera sight. Underbarrel grenade launcher. Smart optics. Scope auto calibrates with your eye movements and has variable zoom, night-vision, and thermal. Can punch through youre IFVs hull with the right mod."
She slapped a stack of energy mags into my chest. Then a grenade belt with various color coded orbs.
"Frag, EMP, concussive, flashbang, incendiary, and one 'Surprise Me', don't ask. You'll know when you throw it."
And then the helmet. Fully enclosed. Polished black. Angular, intimidating. She slid it onto my head like she was crowning a king of ruin.
"HUD inside is synced with my main server. Comes with aim assist, IFF markers, enemy tracking, target prediction, threat detection, heartbeat monitor, oxygen supply, and most importantly, style."
I blinked inside the visor as it powered up. My view was immediately overlaid with markers, telemetry, vitals, and weapons diagnostics.
I flexed my fingers, checking the balance of the rifle in my grip, the weight of the armor over my shoulders. Everything was tight. Clean. Deadly.
Then I froze.
Right there, across the armory, standing under the dim glow of recessed lights like she was center stage in a cinematic wet dream. Invicta.
She was strapping two sleek holsters to her thighs, the material hugging every curve like it had been grown on her.
Then, slowly too slowly to be innocent she slid twin laser pistols into the holsters with a kind of smooth, almost ritualistic grace, hips tilting just enough for the motion to hit all the wrong buttons in the most precise way possible.
Damn. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear she was doing it on purpose.
"Hmph. Like what you see?"
Her voice pulled me out of my unintentional ogling, smug and laced with amusement.
"Uh… yeah."
I blurted it out like an absolute idiot. Like a cadet seeing a woman for the first time. She snickered, low and unbothered, clearly enjoying the hell out of my brain short circuiting.
Then she turned back to the locker, business like now. Snapped on her front and back armor plates slim yet reinforced, designed for full mobility while still offering full vital organ protection, though Its not like she needed It In the first place.
They sealed with a hiss and click, perfectly contoured and just as intimidating as they were alluring. She reached to the wall behind her and pulled free a laser edged combat blade, the edge crackling faintly with light.
She slid it into the sheath on her back, the motion practiced, dangerous, graceful. Then she grabbed something from a sleek, locked case.
A mask. Not just any mask. A custom designed demon facial mask with two air filters she placed it over her face. It hissed as it sealed.