Ambush

As the Attack Ship landed on the ground, ramp extending to the rough terrain floor, Drog-Mo marched down. A squadron of a dozen men followed behind and they took a moment to take stock of the situation. Gaze flickering over the barren wasteland that surrounded them and the burning wreck to the Kryptonian ship to their right.

Raising one hand, Drog-Mo looked at the holographic map on his wrist and noticed the signal coming from the mountain. "Commander, come in?" But there was nothing more than static on the other end and Drog-Mo scowled, clenching his fist tightly in anger.

"Captain? What are our orders?" One of his soldiers questioned and Drog-Mo took a moment to consider his options. From what the map was telling him, the mountain was filled with hundreds of lifeforms including Tah-Zods. But they had no idea of their technological capability and that was dangerous.

As the second Attack Ship landed on the ground, the squadron inside disembarking as well, Drog-Mo now had a force numbering twenty-four elites overall. With their technology, he was confident that they would be able to escape if things went sour.

"Squad Two, leave five men behind, I want the ships running and prepared to provide support if the situation turns violent. I also want someone to try and open communication with Commander Rux-Ze. Inform him that we are walking into a tribe of natives of an unknown threat level, and we request reinforcements." Drog-Mo ordered. "The rest of you, move out!"

"Yes sir!"

-X- Line Break -X-

Breathing heavily, I clutched hold of the table upon which I had once been resting upon. The metal groaning and bending under the force I exerted till eventually, it snapped off. But I could barely pay attention to that fact as I focused purely on regaining control of my senses. It was slow going but out of the set of powers I knew Kryptonians to possess, my senses had been the ones to rapidly grow the quickest.

Yet my strength was also growing at a much slower pace, which was unfortunate. On the other hand, considering my situation, I was too focused on regaining control of my senses to see any signs of superhuman speed, flight, invulnerability or heat vision.

Despite that, however, I couldn't deny the growing power within me and I wanted more of it and as my gaze carried across the room, it looked at the machine in which the liquid yellow sun resided. 'That's the key.' Vaguely an image of a version of Superman wearing a suit of armour that fed him yellow sun filled my mind and I couldn't help but think of creating a suit similar to that of my own. One that would continually feed me yellow sun allowing me the full totality of Kryptonian powers even under a red sun.

Pushing myself to my feet, I made my way across the corridor, one hand gripping the left side of my face as I staved off the noises all around me. It was certainly more manageable, no longer giving me the crippling pain it once had.

But as soon as I came to a stop before it, trying to figure out which buttons to press to get the desired result, I was interrupted by the sound of armoured footsteps down the corridor. And mere moments later, the Kryptonian soldiers clad in the armour of the Spear of Rao stepped in. It was darker than the standard Kryptonian armour worn by the Sword of Rao, but the crest of Rao was lined with white separating it from its predecessor organisation. The cape itself was also a dark red in colour.

"Tah-Zod, freeze! By order of the Council of Five and the High Eminence, Lor-Em, you are hereby under arrest!" I winced at the loud shout but slowly turned around to stare at my former soldiers and one stranger.

"I'm sorry, you have me at a loss, who are you?"

"I am Captain Drog-Mo of House Mo and the Spear of Rao, serving under Commander Rux-Ze. Now surrender peacefully." Drog-Mo ordered brazenly, and I smirked, serving to infuriate the man further. But while Drog-Mo stewed in his anger, I noticed that my former soldiers were also looking around, taking note of the situation, just as I had trained them to do. This newcomer Drog-Mo on the other hand wasn't, which told me that he only earned his position because of his family name.

"Oh how demanding." I mocked, my smirk growing even further ever thankful for the distraction before me that took my mind off my powers. "But I guess I should have expected that considering you only earned your position from your family name. Did Lor-Em tell you my name?"

"Tah-Zod, a nameless soldier adopted into the House of Zod," Drog-Mo replied and I shook my head in amusement, taking note of the closing doors.

"Correct, I was adopted into the House of Zod, but before that, I was known as Tah-Em, son of Lor-Em." Drog-Mo and many of the Kryptonians tensed upon hearing that. "But I think I'll take a new name, one that symbolises who I am and will become; Tah-Rao."

That declaration served to anger Drog-Mo just like I had expected. The House of Mo after all were generational Religious Guild members. But considering their decline in influence in recent years and the rapid expansion that House Zod had over Kryptonian politics, they had no doubt transferred to the military in order to regain some former prestige. Even so, my words for the desired result and angered the religious fanatic that was Drog-Mo.

"Blasphemy!" Drog-Mo shouted raising his rifle at me and goes to fire, yet I didn't move from my position or attempt to protect myself as the other soldiers did so instead. After all, Drog-Mo had already revealed that I was wanted alive. And certainly, it was a gamble, but it was one that paid off when the energy round whizzed past my face, smashing into the wall behind me as two of the soldiers wrestled Drog-Mo to the ground. "Kill him! He's not worthy!"

"Calm yourself, Captain." Some of the soldiers urged and I found the entire thing incredibly amusing.

"Well, well, well, how disappointing. You have so little control over your emotions, not very good for a man of your position, Drog-Mo." I mocked and even as my former subordinates raised their guns at me.

But at that moment, there was a crackle before Bertron spoke over the speakers. {I would kindly ask that all of you put down your weapons. I need all of you alive for what's to come.}

"W-what? Show yourself!" Drog-Mo demanded angrily.

But there was no answer which was kind of what I expected from this whole thing. What Drog-Mo had failed to take into account was the fact that all their exits were shut off. They were trapped and considering the numerous creatures and the fact this the lab was built by different metals, it only confirmed that we were not the first to land on this planet. And that they were probably sharing the same fate of them.

'How cliché.' I bemoaned internally. "Well, we're currently in quite the situation. Might I suggest we put out differences on hold for now, at least until we've dealt with Bertron?"

"Who is Bertron?" One soldier asked warily.

"The owner of this place, he saved my life, but I assume that was only to use for me whatever test he's going to put us through."

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

However, Drog-Mo was not on board with me taking command as I so naturally did. Whereas my former soldiers could recognise the need to set aside differences in the face of our survival, apparently he did not possess the same skill. "Enough, I will not stand here and allow a traitor and a heathen like you to dictate command. Arrest him and then we will get out of here."

{I'm afraid I can't allow that to happen.} Bertron warned and at that moment, we all quite clearly heard the sound of screeches echoing down the corridors. Even with the metal doors blocking off the passageways, it could still be heard quite clearly.

"I do believe that we no longer have a choice." I directed to Drog-Mo. "Form ranks, prepare to engage the enemy!" And as naturally as one breathed the air, my former subordinates quickly followed my orders forming into two rows. One crouched down and another behind them, stood upright with all raising their Direct Energy Rifles. "If you have nothing meaningful to contribute, I suggest that you stand over there."

Drog-Mo looked to me, anger shining his eyes but as we could all hear the ever-louder screeches growing closer, the stamping of rapid footsteps closing in, he reluctantly stepped away. Conveniently, right where I wanted him to go, placing him between me and the nearest set of chambers. I didn't know if the creatures inside were alive, but if they were, then having someone like Drog-Mo stood there would serve to act as a nice little decoy.

Certainly, I had the powers of a Kryptonian within me now, but something about Bertron made me feel uneasy and not for the first time, I cursed myself for not having written down all the information I had on my previous life. However, what I did know was that whoever he was, he was linked to someone dangerous. Someone who by the flashes of blue, red and an S symbol, was connected to Superman.

That wasn't a good thing.

And as the doors before us opened up, we all looked out, trying to find the sight of whatever was coming towards them, but Bertron seemed to have the good sense to turn off all the lights down the corridor keeping it submerged in darkness.

"One round, fire!" In response to my order, each man fired one energy round down the corridor. The light coming off it illuminating the corridor and at first, we found nothing. But just as the energy rounds reached their limit, I caught a glimpse of a creature rounding the corridor. It was large and grey-skinned with some white honey protrusions coming out of its face. And there were dozens of them ranging from small to large, skinny, to muscular.

It was this that triggered my memory of why exactly I had such a bad feeling. "Doomsday," I whispered but it was not quiet enough, the others overhearing my words and a chill settled over all of us.

"W-what did you say?" One stuttered out fearfully.

"That creature, Doomsday, it's here?" Fear was the only emotion that gripped all of us, especially myself. I had thought that the creature Doomsday was following the New 52 timeline where Doomsday attacked Krypton only to beaten back by a then ranked, Colonel Zod wearing a Kryptonian Armour forged by House Zod many years ago. That was what I had learned from history, especially considering that event promoted him to General so of course, I knew of it. Due to the destruction it had caused, it was given a number of names.

The Ultimate.

Apocalypse.

The End.

Death.

But one that had become popular throughout, was Doomsday. Turns out even Kryptonians had a similar naming sense to humans. Or perhaps, it is fate that Doomsday was to be called such and therefore unavoidable. Who knows?

But I also knew that in the original timeline, Doomsday was created by an alien obsessed with creating the perfect life form. It seemed that it was a mix of the two, but how was Bertron alive? Considering he had started his work many millennia ago, he should be dead by now. Though as I looked around at the creatures in the tubes, I had to wonder if he had perfected a sort of cloning process in which he provided himself with a pseudo-immortality. If so, no wonder he had continued his experimentations.

Yet again though I had to wonder why he was still alive especially when Doomsday lives purely to kill all those he considers a threat to himself. Bertron was perhaps the biggest threat in Doomsday's eyes after constantly being killed and reborn by said scientist. So how was Bertron still alive and why was Doomsday still here?

So many questions and so few answers.

"Calm yourselves!" I ordered. "This creature has been defeated before and will be again. Ready yourselves." For a few moments, I paused looking out into the darkness and focusing my vision and slowly but surely, I began to see through it. Picking up the movements and numbers and what I saw was shocking. There were dozens and more kept on coming.

'By Rao, how many are there? Do they all have the powers of Doomsday?' That thought alone sent a shiver down my spine, I even went so far as to swallow my saliva out of nervousness. But much like I ordered the Kryptonian soldiers, I calmed myself. "Fire!"

In response to my order, energy rounds fired in quick succession mowing down all the creatures rushing towards us. I watched it all, feeling my nervousness continue to grow as I watched the creatures drop like flies. But I couldn't help but ask myself if they had the powers of Doomsday, when would they get up again?

And at that moment, I heard a clicking noise sounding all around us. No one else took notice, too deafened by the noise of the Direct Energy Rifles firing constantly. But with my hearing, I picked it up easily and I turned to see the chambers draining of fluid.

Realising what was about to happen, I began moving backwards slowly towards the liquid yellow sun machine, I had a feeling I would need more of it very soon. Drog-Mo however noticed my movements and turned to look at me. There was anger there, yet also smugness at seeing me move away but before he could say anything, the chambers behind him opened with a hiss. This time, not even he could ignore such a sound and turned to see what it was.

He was barely able to let out a scream before the creatures pounced upon him.