Chapter 15: Not so friendly neighbours

Cerion took in the massive underwater city around him with an appreciative hum. Unfortunately, the city was in a sorry state. While many of its defences were functional, it was barely hanging by its last threads.

It lacked the necessary energy to sustain itself in the long run. The power core that ran the city was dying, as the fuel was getting exhausted, and the engine required a major repair. The city's construction was also weak, as it was never renovated after its construction some 5300 years ago.

It was a wonder the city even managed to last this long, considering the changes in atmospheric temperature, oceanic activities, and exposure to salinity.

"Optima, find out how the city managed to last this long?" he ordered absently as he took in the carvings and artwork along the walls.

His trusted AI had easily bypassed the Kree City's security protocols long before he arrived. The Scouter and a small group of drones were more than enough to map out the city and remove any remaining defences.

"There was a shield around the city, sir. The lack of power forced the city to shut down the shield."

"I see. Have you accessed the city archives?"

"Kree archives are being processed, sir."

"Are there any star charts?" he asked, almost hopefully.

"Yes, sir."

That put a smile on his face. So, the city possessed a wealth of information. Of course, that info was out of date and had to be verified but any information was better than zero information.

"What about spaceships?"

"No spaceships can be found in the city, sir."

That was unfortunate. It would've been useful to gain access to any Kree ships left in the city, but no matter. The star charts themselves were more than valuable.

"What about the docks? Can they be useful for repairing Serenity?"

"Yes, sir. But the city can hardly function without a proper power source. It will need a high-density power source, and the shields need to be reinstated for safety."

"What is the city's current power source?" he asked as he picked up a gauntlet from an open chamber on the wall.

"Kree archives call it Gravitonium." said Optima.

An image was projected into the room, showing its structural composition.

"They have used this element to power their cities, weapons and ships."

"Of course. The building block of great Empires." he said in awe as he took in the projected energy signature of the material.

The material could power up an average nation on Earth for a decade, and it would still only require a gram in quantity.

"Show me the engine design."

Optima changed the display from Gravitonium, and in its place was the engine that had extracted power from the element in the city.

"It seems to be extracting power from gravitational tears in space using Gravitonium," he commented absently as he walked around the projected image, taking in the design.

Then, suddenly, it clicked in his head.

"The element appears to be able to convert energy from the Phantom Space, or, as the Terrans call it, the Quantum Space."

"I know. Can you estimate the energy density of one gram of Gravitonium?" Cerion asked eagerly.

"Current estimate is 5000 GJ/s from a single unit of refined Gravitonium." Optima answered.

"It seems the answer to unlimited clean energy is with this element Optima."

"The element will have to be mined, sir. From the Kree archives, it is obvious this element rarely exists in the Universe."

"Have you forgotten Optima? We possess the technology to obtain negative mass on the matter. With our technology, we can artificially form this element. Once we possess the element, we could work out a chain reaction to mass conversions of asteroid belts or even transmute deposits on planets."

His trusted AI was silent for a moment. "Forgive me, sir. It seems I was wrong."

"There is nothing to forgive Optima. It seems we have a lot of work left to be done," he said as plans started to form in his mind: "Restore the city's energy output with Arc Reactors. Transfer all available Arc Reactors to power up the city and restore the shield. Establish a Space Bridge as well."

"Are you planning to transport the Vibranium and Serenity to the city, sir?"

Cerion thought about that for a while. While the Kree City was more advanced and suitable for his needs, it was not exactly inaccessible to humans. It was too close to human settlements for his liking, and a US military base was a few miles away.

Nonetheless, the city will be very useful in the future. Now, if only he could move it to his island base….

He gradually started to develop an idea. With some careful planning and research, it was entirely possible to move the city to the island.

"We won't be moving anything to the city, Optima. We will be moving the city to our island." Cerion eventually said.

"Forgive me, sir. I don't see how that could happen."

"You will. Soon."

Cerion smiled as he returned the gauntlet back to the chamber and took a final look at the vast city before he decided to take his leave. Just as he was about to step into the Scouter, the Kree City plunged into lockdown, and alarms blared all across the city. The peaceful white lights across the city now turned an ominous red.

"Optima, what is happening?" he asked in alarm.

"Sir, there appears to be a hostile weapon locking onto the city."

"What?" he looked at his trusted AI incredulously. "Who is targeting us?"

"Four Kree warships have locked in on the position of the city. I estimate the city will be flooded, and some heavy damage will be sustained to San Juan with ample human life lost in the attack."

******

Coulson ran as fast as his legs could carry him in the mayhem that was SHIELD HQ in Sacramento. Just ten minutes ago, NASA warned of a group of spaceships entering the Solar System. SHIELD had been scrambling their weapons to prepare for a response if the visitors were hostile.

He was stuck in traffic when he got the call from SHIELD HQ. Thankfully, he managed to keep in contact with his agents and had been discreetly turning their air assets on alert for an immediate response.

He ran straight into the Director's office, dismissing any protocol. However, the Director was not alone. Alexander Pierce was also in the office, and both men looked grim.

"Coulson, you're right on time." said Fury before indicating to take a seat.

"I was stuck in traffic, but I was debriefed by Agent May, Director." he straightened his tie and sat on the offered seat.

"Good. We are facing most probably an invasion but we didn't know who." said Fury.

"Can we be sure, sir? The last time our deep space scanners alerted us of an extra-terrestrial object, it turned out it was not an invasion force." said Coulson.

"Four gigantic ships are closing in on Earth, and the latest scans show they have taken a geosynchronous orbit to park their ships," said Fury as he pressed a few buttons on the keyboard. The radar image flickered away, replaced by a gigantic ship.

"The smallest ship is nearly 3 miles wide, Agent Coulson. What you are looking at is not a tourist yacht; it's a warship." said Pierce.

"Well, warships." Pierce corrected himself with a small cough.

Coulson nodded as he accepted the point the Secretary was making. He looked at Fury who was playing with a pager in his hand. He had never seen Fury this much worried. Considering the situation, he could understand why. He also knew the pager was given to the Director by Carol Danvers. If Fury was going to use it he already would have so he knew something was up.

"You might be wondering why I asked you here," said Fury before the Director swivelled around in his chair to face Coulson. "I need to know whether this has anything to do with Vex. Is this his people?"

"Sir, I'll just check." said Coulson.

He was just about to dial the guy when a text message came from Vex. Reading the text, his eyes widened.

"Sir, you need to see this. It's from Vex." said Coulson as he handed over his phone to the Director.

Prepare your forces immediately. The Kree Fleet is here! I'm moving in to intercept. Take care of any strays that enter Earth's atmosphere.

Coulson watched as Fury took a deep breath. The Kree were bad news. They had quite a lot of intelligence on those genocidal maniacs in the SHIELD. If Vex was to be trusted, then their planet was in serious trouble. They were nowhere near prepared to engage in space warfare against an interplanetary empire.

"Do you trust him?" asked Fury.

"Yes sir." answered Coulson and he hoped Vex was indeed a friend to humanity and not a sleeper agent for an alien invasion as Alexander Pierce theorised.

It was a valid concern, one he knew many on the World Security Council held. But having worked closely with Vex for almost a year, he knew the guy was not hostile. He was a bit anti-social, robotic, and rough around the edges, but never hostile.

He schooled his features to neutral as Fury picked up his radio.

"All agents, this is Nick Fury. As of this moment, we are at war. Alpha Protocol in effect." said Fury before he turned off the radio and turned to Coulson. "Let's hope Vex can buy us time for our birds to get in the air."

The radio shortly cackled back to life, and Coulson recognised the voice as Agent Hill's.

"Director Fury, do you copy?"

"Agent Hill?"

"Sir, our satellites are tracking an object moving fast towards Bogey 1, well above Mach 5 speed."

Fury looks up to meet Coulson's eyes.

"It looks like he's on the move."

******

Cerion cursed himself for not taking any precautions. He should have thought the Kree were monitoring the city. Or maybe the Kree were not monitoring the city, but the city itself might have sent out a distress signal once Optima breached its defences.

Whatever the reason, Kree ships were now in orbit, and they were hell-bent on destroying the city, which he could not tolerate. He sparingly remembered that the Kree were interested in wiping out Inhumans. Obviously, he was not an Inhuman, but the Kree may not have known that. They must have thought him an Inhuman who tracked down the city to use the Diviner.

Under no circumstances could he allow the Kree to damage the city. Kree City housed a goldmine of information and technology that would only further aid his plans on Earth and the wider galaxy. Even if the Kree were judicious in using force, they would still damage San Juan, and many lives would be lost in the attack.

That's why he alerted Coulson of the impending Kree invasion.

Pushing himself further, he speared through the air, rapidly gaining speed towards the Kree ships in orbit. While he had alerted Coulson of the threat, he also left the Scouter in stealth mode above San Juan to take out any stray Kree fighters or weapons in case he wouldn't be able to defend properly.

His enhanced vision picked up the activities of Kree ships firing their projectile weapons aimed at the city. He could not allow those missiles to enter Earth's atmosphere. Once it penetrated Earth's atmosphere, SHIELD could track the missiles to their intended location, which would expose the location of the city. He could not allow that to happen.

His eyes burned with intense heat and power as a blast of red-hot laser blasted out of his eye sockets. He kept the laser blast consistent and sharp to cut through the incoming missiles. Before the missiles could pass through Earth's atmosphere, he managed to cut a swath through most of them, and only two managed to escape the initial blast.

He changed his course, intercepted one of the missiles, and punched it in the nose. The resulting explosion consumed him in a wave of heat and radiation, but the tactile telekinetic shield protected him and his suit of armour from any damage. A concentrated laser blast from his eyes saw to it that the last of the missiles was destroyed before it could enter Earth's atmosphere.

With that done, he turned his attention to the four gigantic warships of the Kree fleet. He hoped the Kree would take their ships and leave, seeing as their initial attack had been destroyed in the cradle.

"Oh shit!" Cerion muttered.

The warships began to deploy hundreds of fighter crafts contrary to his hope.

'Looks like I will have to use forceful deterrence,' Cerion thought before charging his eyes once again and beginning to cut a swath through the fighters.

A barrage of plasma shots dropped on him like an avalanche, which he managed to swivel through, if barely. He caught a fighter by its tail and swung it around. The pilot, in a fit of panic, held on to the firing console, and the fighter began firing continuously. This, along with his laser beam, devastated many of the Kree fighters, but the fighters kept popping up in numbers.

He speared through a few more fighters and began blasting out those that were far away from his reach with his lasers. But it was becoming difficult to manoeuvre around the fighters, especially when he was concentrating on not letting any of them cross into Earth's atmosphere.

For a fraction of a second, he took his focus away from the mother ships, and that cost him. A boatload of energy slammed into him from one of the bigger ships, temporarily clouding his senses. That was all the time the fighters needed to gather in a formation and pelt him with concentrated fire and an energy net to constrict his movements.

With his strength, he could eventually overcome it, but he decided to take the hits in favour of concentrating on the bigger threat. The bigger ships were the problem, so he concentrated his laser beam on the ship.

A torrent of superhot white plasma beam blasted off from his eyes straight for one of the larger ships. It was one of his strongest attacks, and he poured as much energy into the plasma beam as he could, but the ship's energy shield took the hit and held strong. He maintained his attack, but he could not feel like he was breaching the barrier.

While he maintained his assault, the other three ships surrounded him. The fighters quickly pulled back, and he noted what was going on. But he could feel he was nearly there to breach the energy shield, so he persisted in his attack.

Suddenly, his body lurched forward as if he were being hit by an unstoppable force. Nonetheless, he resumed the laser attack, but then he felt the three ships turn on their weapon. His laser turned off abruptly as he felt his body was being torn apart. His senses were being torn away. His ears got assaulted by booming and grinding sounds. His vision was getting black spots and turning upside down which didn't make any sense anymore. His muscles strained as his body felt like being pushed, pulled and torn apart in multiple directions. Pain dominated his body, and he could barely concentrate.

He tried to expand his tactile kinetic field to reject the effects of the weapon, but it was stretched thin. His powers were the only thing that guaranteed he was still alive. In a moment of clarity, he understood he was being assaulted by a gravity weapon. He was slowly overcoming its effects as his senses were adjusting, but not fast enough. It felt like he was suspended in a well of gravity that was collapsing the space around him with its power.

He screamed as he felt the forces of gravity increase and renew their assault on his senses, throwing off his recovery. He tried to concentrate his energy on his eyes to fire off a laser beam, but the energy could not escape. Gravity was distinctly powerful, and even energy and light were getting warped by bending space under the assault of artificial gravity.

Cerion closed his eyes and tried to think of a way out of the situation. Then came a whisper into his mind. He felt it was in his mind because the sound was not being warped by gravity.

"Use your power. Pull the Light forth."

His vision suddenly changed, and he felt as if he was standing on an asteroid.

With a start, he realised that this was the vision he had when training with the Ancient One. A hand laid on his shoulder startled him, and he turned around to find a being that looked otherworldly. Its eyes were gleaming as if they were stars. Its body flickered with purple lights. He could literally see patterns of a collection of spinning galaxies on its body. It had two hands and legs, but it was far from being humanoid. It lacked a mouth, nose or even ears. It was shrouded in darkness, but he felt no fear standing before the being. It felt almost like a compulsory calm invaded his mind.

"What are you?" he asked

"In time, you'll know. For now, bring forth the Light in this world. That is your purpose—your destiny."

The being's voice whispered into his mind, and he was back inside the gravity well again.

His body no longer felt the effects of gravity as he was bathed in a white cocoon of energy. He spread out his arms, and a surge of white light exploded out from his body, pushing back against the gravity around him. His senses returned in full force.

Enormous energy burned behind his eyes, and he turned it against the Kree warship. Instead of the classic red beam, a white-hot beam with a blueish hue blasted out of his eyes. It pierced through the Kree ship's energy shield like a hot knife through butter. He dragged his eyes sideways, and the Kree ship split in two. The ship exploded and shattered into debris. The cries of dozens of Kree soldiers assaulted his ears, and he turned away from the sorry sight of their demise.

He didn't wait to admire his work as he immediately sped towards the next one. This time, he was careful and merely cut a hole into the engine room, cutting power and leaving the ship stranded in space. The vacuum did the rest of the work as it sucked the life support systems dry, killing the Kree. Many of the Kree soldiers escaped in pods to the remaining two ships.

Cerion chose to leave them be and instead focused on thinning out the annoying stray fighters. With his enhanced vision, he could see that a stray few attempted to enter Earth's atmosphere but were shot down by SHIELD's ballistic missiles and even a couple of quinjets.

He didn't want to spill more blood, so he fired a glancing shot with his plasma beam that singed the edges of the two remaining ships. Thankfully, the Kree got the message and decided to cut their losses and run. They took their remaining fighters on board and took the quick way out by engaging their FTL engines. This left Cerion and a partially functioning Kree ship floating in space—not to mention a whole lot of Kree dead bodies floating in space.

'It seems something good did come out of this mess.' he thought, looking at the giant ship now under his de facto ownership.