Dust and ash slammed into the blue energy barriers and scattered harmlessly, unable to penetrate the barrier.
Inside, the atmosphere remained calm but the air was thick with tension. A single, curt voice crackled over the loudspeakers.
"Contuberniums One through Eight. embark and prepare for departure."
Without hesitation, without wasted motion, the soldiers moved. They jogged up the loading ramps of their assigned dropships, gear clinking quietly, weapons In their hands.
Inside the cockpits, clone pilots ran rapid diagnostics, their gloved hands flipping switches, locking in nav routes, syncing with the ship's orbital positioning data.
Engine lights blinked green across the hangar deck.
Dropships rumbled louder as their thrusters spewed out blue flames, filling the vast chamber with a throbbing vibration.
From above, the loudspeakers continued to give orders while the ground crews with diffrent armband markers and ligthstick directed the traffic.
"Echo one to echo 10 you have green light go go."
The first dropship lifted cleanly from the deck, its landing struts retracting with mechanical clicks.
It hovered for a split second, engines roaring against gravity then pivoted and surged forward, slipping seamlessly through the shimmering blue barrier and into the hellscape beyond.
Another followed. Then another.
Within moments, waves of the black ships launched in disciplined intervals, peeling off in every direction across the broken E*rth below.
...
The metro shelter shook with the roar of approaching engines.
The young mother clutched her daughter tightly, both shielding their eyes from the sudden flood of blue white light pouring down the tunnel.
Boots hit the concrete a contubernum of black armored soldiers stormed in, their movements smooth, mechanical.
One knelt before the mother without a word, sweeping a handheld scanner over her and the child. A soft beep confirmed their eligibility.
The soldier nodded once and barked in perfect F*ench.
"Indentity confirmed. Extraction authorized. Move."
Tears blurred the mother's vision as she stumbled to her feet, daughter clinging to her side.
She didn't resist when the soldier gently pulled her along. She didn't protest as another black armored figure hoisted her exhausted husband onto their shoulder like he weighed nothing.
At the mouth of the metro, a dropship squatted, engines whining.
More survivors dazed, filthy, Injured were being herded aboard under the watchful eyes of silent, imposing soldiers.
As they were lifted inside, the mother collapsed into a seat, clutching her family close.
"Merci... Merci... Merci..."
She wept, unable to stop. And for the first time, she whispered not just gratitude... but a prayer.
"Thank you, my G*ddess..."
...
The ground shook as a pair of dropships hovered low over the ruins of the residential block.
Ropes unfurled. Black armored soldiers rappelled down, weapons slung, movements like flowing water. Infrared scanners led them unerringly to the buried family.
A soldier knelt, planting a compact demolition charge against the collapsed concrete. A muffled THOOM shook the dust free, and daylight spilled in.
Hands reached down, pulling the family of ive up into the light.
The teenage daughter sobbed openly, clinging to her father as two soldiers wrapped thermal blankets around them.
A medic jammed a needle into the father's and her sisters and mothers arms, an injection of anti rad meds. Another soldier handed them a sealed oxygen masks each, pressing them firmly to theyre faces.
"No fear,"
The medic said in crisp J*panese.
"You're safe now."
As they were hustled aboard the dropship, the girl dared a glance back at the soldiers, standing firm against the rising radioactive winds.
She realized with a sudden jolt. They were not just rescuers. They were angels. And she owed her life to their G*ddess.
...
Beneath the ruins, the dying man gasped, half conscious, as a spotlight lanced through the dust choked air.
Dark figures in black armor dropped from a hovering shadow. One knelt beside him, scanning, checking vitals.
"Severe radiation exposure. Priority medevac."
The voice was calm, clipped. The soldier moved fast, slipping an injector against the man's neck. An immediate burn shot through him, pain, but life too.
Another soldier slapped a biofoam patch onto his worst wounds, sealing the bleeding. Lifting him carefully onto a stretcher, they rushed him back toward the waiting dropship.
As he floated into the cool, antiseptic hold, the man fought to keep his failing eyes open. Tears blurred his vision as darkness overtook him.
"Tank… you…"
He whispered.
"Tank… you… my g*ddess"
...
The teenage girl stumbled and fell as the sewer tunnel shook violently, the low bass thrum of engines deafening her ears.
She screamed for her mother, cradling her as light blazed toward her through the darkness. Then black armored boots slammed into the water beside her.
A visor peered down at her, unreadable. Without a word, arms scooped her up, her mother too.
The girl fought, but then the soldier pressed something small into her hand. A warmth. A wrapped ration bar.
"Eat,"
Came the order, soft but firm. They sprinted through the fetid tunnels, back toward the source of the blinding light.
A ramp lowered from a waiting dropship. Inside, medics awaited, saline drips, warming units, new oxygen masks.
The girl sat dazed as her mother was stabilized.
And through the viewport of the dropship, she stared up at the monolithic black ship hovering in the radioactive clouds covered sky, vast, terrible, d*vine.
She whispered, half in terror, half in awe.
"Thank you my g*ddess... thank you..."
...
The old sailor slumped against the deck as the sea swallowed more of his boat. Just when he'd thought it was over, a black shadow descended from the clouds.
Blue flames whipped the poisoned water into whirlwinds. A line dropped down a soldier rappelled fast, landing like a demon of salvation. The sailor stared, too stunned to move.
Without waiting for permission, the soldier slung him over his shoulder, as he did the line started reeling him back In.
The sailor coughed, water and blood filling his lungs, but he managed a hoarse croak as he was pulled into the dropship.
"Thank ye... Thank ye, G*ddess... I owe ye my life..."
The soldier said nothing only secured him into a seat, slapped a life support monitor onto his chest, and moved on to the next.
...
The surviving doctors and nurses barely had time to react when the dark thunder of engines filled the crumbling ward.
A hole got busted in the collapsed roof, and soldiers descended like wraiths. Medics moved among the survivors instantly, prioritizing triage.
Antirad injections, first aid bandages, oxygen masks. A gurney was rolled through the broken halls, carrying the worst off toward the waiting dropship.
Some among the survivors sank to their knees, overwhelmed, sobbing openly.
A nurse, her hands still stained from trying to save children an hour ago, grabbed the arm of a passing soldier.
"Please… Please tell me we deserve this…"
The soldier hesitated a heartbeat. Then, in a voice distorted by a modulator, he said.
"You fought for others. That is why you are chosen."
Tears streamed down her face as she stumbled toward salvation. And So It Spread... Across the broken E*rth, aboard the black dropships, amid the ruined cities and bleeding skies...
A new kind of faith was born. Not faith in g*ds of old. Not faith in fallen leaders. But faith in a new g*ddess, a machine.
Their Mother. Their Reaper. Their last salvation. And in the depths of their battered hearts... They swore never to betray her.
Never to forget who had given them life when all hope had died. Even if it cost their souls.
...
MC POV
The heavy doors slid open with a hydraulic hiss, unveiling the massive hangar ahead of us.
I strode forward, my boots thudding solidly against the reinforced floor plating. My right hand rested casually on the grip of my laser pistol strapped at my hip a habitual comfort more than a threat.
Beside me walked Invicta, dressed a black toga with red and white accents draped elegantly over her sin forged form, every thread of the fabric seeming to pulse faintly with restrained power.
A golden laurel crown crowned her head like a halo of light. Her black, red and white hair cascaded down her back in perfectly controlled waves, catching the overhead lighting and scattering it like a waterfall.
And her face flawless, inhumanly symmetrical, terrifying in its cold beauty was the perfect mask of indifference.
If g*ds ever walked among mortals, they would look like her.
Behind us marched Centurion 1111 and his contubernum, black armored, fully geared soldiers in segmented matte armor, each armed to the teeth.
Their movements were unnervingly synchronized, silent except for the occasional metallic clink of weapons brushing against armor plates.
I broke the silence first, glancing at her sideways.
"I thought you said you could only stuff one million onboard,"
I muttered, voice low. She didn't even glance at me. Just smirked lazily.
"Meh,"
Invicta said with a shrug of one perfect shoulder.
"If I stuff real hard, I can make it two million. Some will take a nap in cryopods. Others... well, they'll have to cozy up in the corridors. Might have to demolish a few labs and repurpose the hydrophonic bays."