Aftermath

Verlin felt the weight of the massive mothership as he slowly guided it towards the Arctic region. While his strength was more than sufficient to bear the burden, he had to be cautious not to destabilize the damaged structure any further.

While he had been moving the mothership, he had been eavesdropping on Chloe and Desna. He couldn't help but think about what Chloe said. He had personally thought there was nothing wrong with how Desna handled the situation. From a logical standpoint, it made sense - the alien was clearly in agony, unable to survive in Earth's atmosphere, and had been an enemy combatant. Desna's proposed course of action was the rational choice.

However, Chloe's naive compassion had made him feel uncomfortable. He knew Desna wasn't wrong, but Chloe wasn't either. 

He had blasted the entire mothership with gamma radiation, not only shutting down the ship, but also effectively killing all the beings inhabiting it. He could have figured out a different way to handle the mothership.

Verlin faced grimaced as his fingers subconciously dug deeper into the kryptonium platform. It made him feel like he had chosen the easy way out.

"Verlin." 

The familiar voice of Desna came through his communicator, snapping him out of his contemplation. Easing his hold on the platform, he quickly responded, " What is it?"

"The South Federation are sending fighter jets towards the mothership."

"Can you hack their systems and redirect them?" Verlin asked

"Already attempting to," Desna replied. "But their systems are more advanced than anticipated."

Verlin slightly grunted. Now that he was paying attention, he could hear the distant roar of jet engines growing louder. Without turning his head, he could see them approaching from beneth the mothership, but they were still 80 km away.

As the fighter jets streaked past Verlin's position underneath the looming mothership, he could hear the confusion and disbeief in their communication channel.

"Verlin, they're changing course," Desna's voiced out.

"I can see that"

Verlin watched as the jets veered sharply, their forms cutting through the air as they turned around and headed directly towards him. He tightened his grip on the mothership, feeling the urgency of the situation pressing on him. He didn't want to risk any damage to the already fragile structure.

Making a quick decision, Verlin's eyes began to glow a fierce red, his heat vision preparing to fire. But just as he was about to unleash the energy, Desna's voice cut through the tension.

"Got it."

The jets abruptly changed direction again, peeling away from Verlin and the mothership. Desna had successfully hacked their systems and redirected them.

Verlin eased up and the glow in his eyes fading. " Nicely done, Desna."

Desna hummed back in response," I've put them on course to their base. We should be clear for now."

The rest of the journey to the Arctic was uneventful, and after a few hours, Verlin arrived at his destination. The vast expanse of ice and snow stretched out before him, a stark contrast to the technological marvel he was carrying. As he descended, he could see thousands of the small alien ships lined up neatly, alongside Verlin-bots that kept transferring them.

Verlin gently lowered the mothership onto the icy terrain, but no matter how gently he set it down, an object the size of a city would created a thunderous impact. As he set it down the ground beneath trembled as cracks several hundred meters long formed around the perimter of the mothership. The process pushing both Verlin and the pyramid of solitude underground.

Verlin quickly assessed the situation. The mothership was now partially buried, and its fragile state made it crucial to proceed with caution. Vibrating his body at an incredibly high frequency, Verlin began to fly upwards, phasing through the mothership's structure.

As he moved through the ship, Verlin observed the extensive damage caused by the gamma radiation. The acrid smell of burnt electronics filled his senses as he could hear the groans of the aliens that were unfortunate enough to still be alive.

The aliens on the ship are as what he had encountered before, tall bipedals, with four arms and greyish skin. It was entirely unlike the description he had overheard from Desna about the aliens in the smaller ship. 

He exited through the top of the mothership, and could finally appreciate the true scale of the spacecraft. The height of the skull shaped mothership breached the troposhere and entered the stratosphere, its imposing form casting a long shadow over the icy landscape below.

The smaller ships below wouldn't even register to the regular human eye at this height, and even high-level clouds could be seen mingling around eye level of the skull. After taken in the view, Verlin turned his focus back to the bigger picture, " Desna, how is the the situation with the smaller ship?"

"Most of them have been secured," Desna replied. "Though there was some resistance from the Federations when it came to claiming the extraterrestrial ships. I was able to acquire all of them eventually. The Verlin-bots are retrieving the last ones as we speak."

Verlin's eyes narrowed at the mention of the Federations. "Did you have any direct communication with them?"

"They tried to, but I assumed I wouldn't be able to come to a conclusion, so I didn't bother," Desna said. "However, an enhanced human in the West Federation seemed to be acquainted with you."

Verlin's eyes narrowed. "An enhanced human?"

Verlin thoughts raced and a face appeared in his mind. "Rachel," he muttered to himself.

It had been several months since he had seen her, the last time they had met he had left for the Hidden Society for the war meeting. After that he hadn't even bothered trying to blend in with human civilization.

Verlin nodded, " What about the Hidden Society? "

"They were also quite resistant to the idea of us holding onto the technology but given that they had casualties, they didnt pursue the case any further ," Desna continued. "However, their interest remains high. I suspect they will arrive for discussion after they have recuperated."

"Good job Desna. Since everything seems under control for now, have some of the Verlin-bots guard the perimeter." Verlin replied as he rapidly descended. Landing in front of the motership, he continued, " Let's find out who these aliens really are."

As Verlin made his way into the Mothership, a hundred Verlin-bots in the distance flew in and followed behind him while the rest panned out into circular formation around the mothership.

Seeing no entrance, Verlin levitated slightly off the ground and moved towards the mothership. As his body made contact with the ship, the alien metal began to crumple and implode around him, unable to resist his momentum. The material folded inward, creating a passage large enough for him and the Verlin-bots to enter.

Using his X-ray vision, he made a quick scan of the ship. He was looking for a specific alien, the one that had threatned to capture him. He was sure he would be on this ship. After a thorough scan, Verlin didn't find the specific alien he was looking for. But something else got his attention deep within the ship. An unusually powerful energy source was emanating from a hidden chamber, drawing Verlin's focus.

As he began moving towards it, Desna interrupted his thoughts. "Verlin, what should we do with the surviving aliens?"

Verlin paused, considering Desna's question. And for a second, Chloe's words echoed in his mind. He considered trying to find a way to keep the surviving aliens alive and finding a way to heal them, but quickly dismissed the idea. It didn't make any sense their condition was too dire, and their presence posed a significant threat. It would just be a waste of time and resources. 

"Put them out of their misery," Verlin said quietly. 

As his orders went through the Verlin-bots dispatched to carry out their task. Verlin continued his path toward the hidden chamber.

Verlin weaved through the damaged corridors, the acrid smell of damaged circuits clinging to the air and the groans of the aliens had subsided. Soon he reached a heavily reinforced door, far thicker than any he had encountered so far on the ship. He could feel the powerful energy source pulsating from behind it. Without hesitation, Verlin gripped the edge of the door and wrenched it open, the reinforced alien alloy crumpling like paper in his grasp.

Flinging the door aside, Verlin was met with a dimly lit chamber. At its center stood a massive purple crystal with lines numbering in the thousands, intricately etched into its surface. The crystal itself was easily ten meters tall, pulsing with an inner luminescence. Verlin could feel the enormous amount of energy contained within the crystal. 

"Desna, I've found the mothership's energy source. It's a crystal, and it's containing a significant amount of energy. Can you analyze it?"

"Give me a moment." Desna responded.

While waiting for Desna, Verlin took a closer look at the crystal, his eye's zooming in on the lines etched into its surface. It only took him a split second to realise those weren't lines, but more like tiny runes. As he tried to memorize the runes, it seemed to respond and changed patterns , almost as if his observation had disturbed it.

"Interesting." Verlin muttered to himself 

Not giving up, he tried again, focusing intently on the runes, but yet again it eluded him. Speeding up his perception of time, the runes were still able to respond. Verlin continued to speed up his thought process till the molecules within the chamber were at a near halt and still the runes changed even faster in response.

Returning his perception to normal speeds, Verlin frowned.

He could hear something approaching behind him. Spinning around, he saw a Verlin-bot enter the chamber. His gaze immediately fell upon the blue liquid dripping from its hand. Verlin's eyes narrowed as he recognized the liquid—it was the blood of the aliens from the mothership.

Turning his attention back to the crystal, he asked, " So, what do you think?"

"Given how the energy levels remain constant, this crystal does not appear to be generating power," Desna responded through the Verlin-bot. "But rather, it seems to be storing and containing an immense amount of energy - far greater than any source we've created."

Verlin agreed with Desna's analysis, his eyes still fixed on the crystal. The amount of energy in the crystal completely dwarfed the energy in the microstellar reactor they had in the pyramid. Not to mention, the crystal doesn't even look artificially made, with his microscopic vision he couldn't identify the atomic structure of whatever element it was made out of. 

But, if they could make use of this crystal instead of the microstellar reactor, it would be much better. Although the microstellar reactor was great, it was quiet literally like holding a bomb in the heart of the pyramid. But for now, what they really needed was information.

"How long do you think, it would take to fix up most of the ship? Atleast to allow us access to the databanks and information stores?" Verlin asked.

"Given the current state of the mothership and the extensive damage it has sustained, it would take approximately one to two weeks to repair the critical systems and restore access to the databanks," Desna replied through the Verlin-bot. "This is assuming we can allocate a significant number of Verlin-bots to the task and prioritize the most essential repairs."

"One to two weeks," Verlin murmured. " Alright. Focus on using the Verlin-bots to fix up the ship, and try to merge the pyramid with the mothership. I'll keep an eye the perimeter and monitor any incoming threats."

Desna acknowledged the order, "Understood"

Verlin gave a nod of approval before turning and exiting the crystal chamber. As he made his way back through the battered corridors of the ship, he couldn't help but relax slightly. For the past two weeks he had been on constant edge anticipating the attack, now not only was it over but he had won, not exactly how he planned it but it was victory nonetheless.

As he emerged outside once more, Verlin took a moment to survey the Arctic landscape surrounding the partially buried mothership. The small alien craft they had recovered were neatly lined up alongside the Verlin-bots that continuing to transfer more from all over the planet.

Verlin rapidly ascended along the side of the gargantuan skull-shaped hull. As he reached the top, he took a seat at the highest point, the cold Arctic wind whipping around him. His eyes gazed into the distance, Verlin's eyes scanned the horizon, he spotted a small figure thousands of kilometers away that just entered the continent.

Without much thought he knew it was Chloe just from the armor she wore, the one he had specially made. Verlin shot off the head of the mothership to intercept Chloe, passing through the upper layers of the atmosphere he soon reached the area above where Chloe was, before rapidly descending.

As he landed with a heavy thud several hundred meters in front of Chloe, a plume of snow exploded around him, getting Chloe's attention. Verlin could see her tense for a brief moment before relaxing as the cloud settled, revealing Verlin's figure. She quickly closed the distance and landed in front of him.

"You startled me," she said, her tone a mixture of relief and mild reproach. "I wasn't expecting you to come barreling down like that."

Verlin offered a small, apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. I saw you approaching and thought it best to meet you halfway."

He continued, " How's the situation in the Hidden Society?"

Chloe sighed, her breath visible in the frigid air. "The Hidden Society is still recovering, but thanks to Desna the casualties were kept to a minimum."

"That's fortunate, given how the aliens seemed to be aiming specifically for enhanced humans. " Verlin replied

Chloe nodded, " Yeah, Desna mentioned that to me previously..." 

As if remembering something, Chloe's expression turned more serious as she continued, "Speaking about the aliens it's actually what I came here to talk to Desna about."

Verlin shook his head, "Now isn't the best time to talk to Desna."

"Why not?" Chloe questioned

"It's because of how we dealt with the mothership. We were able to shut it down by hitting it with very high dosage of gamma radiation." Verlin explained. "Desna is currently overseeing decontamination procedures before we can access the interior systems and databanks. I'm not sure how enhanced human phsiology reacts to gamma radiation, but for now its safer if you keep your distance."

"Oh, I see." Chloe quietly replied as she looked past Verlin and saw the towering ship in the distance. Usually from how far away they were from the ship, her eye's wouldn't be able to make out much detail. But the skull-shaped mothership loomed large even at this distance, the height alone suprassed even the tallest mountain by a large margin.

She had wondered how they were able to take it down so quickly without much noise or anyone really noticing. As her thoughts raced, she couldn't help but think about the inhabitants on the ship, "Wait, you said you hit it with gamma radiation. What about the aliens inside?"

Verlin stayed silent for a few seconds before responding " Most of them died from the radiation while the rest would have died eventually. It was easiest way to make sure they didn't damage the planet."

As he finished speaking, Verlin almost purposefully bit his own tongue for using the word 'easiest', but he restrained himself.

Chloe's eyes widened slightly in shock, "So, they're all... gone?"

Verlin nodded slightly as they both stood there in silence for a few seconds. These few seconds seemed to stretch out to hours for Verlin as he waited for her to reply.

Finally, Chloe broke the silence, "Verlin, I know to you it must have seemed like the right thing to do. But just because it was the easiest way doesn't mean it was the right way. I thought you of all people would understand that." her voiced traced with a bit of frustration.

" Listen, Chloe ..." As Verlin tried to explain himself, Chloe cut him off with her voice raised , "No, Verlin, you listen. If I've learned anything from the war among humans, it's that if you hit someone because they hit you first, the fighting will never stop. I can understand it for the enhanced humans, because they were fighting for survival. But Verlin, you're different. You're stronger than the rest of us—you can take a hit and still stand. You could have found another way to stop them without killing them."

She continued her voice now barely a whisper and tinged with dissapointment " You had options and you chose the easiest one." 

Chloe turned and flew back the way she had come. Verlin stood motionless, the weight of Chloe's words sinking into his mind, the disappointment in her tone feeling heavier than the mothership he had just moved. He watched her figure grow smaller and smaller in the distance. He wanted to catch up to her and explain how what he did was for the best, but even he didn't believe that anymore.