The Ghost Signal

A few weeks after Christmas I got my company Techno Union started up. I had the money so I didn't need the investments from Seto or Lex. It did require me to sell almost all of the Russian Mafia's former property and assets. My first product was my flagship product the Sentinels. Droids run by the central computer located in the main office building made of steel to make them highly resistant to bullets. The Product was a massive success after both LexCorp and KaibaCorp used them for security instead of organic workers. The Sentinels stopped over 400 incidents of crime in their first 2 weeks of operating. Needless to say, almost every company and government was trying to steal this tech but I designed the Sentinels to explode after 15 seconds of no signal from the control computer. I made everyone who purchased the Sentinels sign away their ability to sue me and they also take all responsibility for injuries given by the droids.

Beep

I check the communicator and see Tex is trying to get in contact. I immediately go to a secure location and answer the call.

Rio: "Hello."

Tex: "Sir, we have a situation."

Rio: "What happened?"

Tex: "Our scanners have picked up 3 large signals at the edge of the system."

Rio: "How large and are they moving?"

Tex: "We are struggling to get a clear reading but they are estimated to be around 900 to 1200 meters in length. They have not moved from their initial position."

Rio: "I will be up shortly."

I quickly use the Astral Realm to get to the Aura's Revenge and sit in the command chair.

Rio: "Have we got any probes that are near the target location."

Tex: "Not now but they will reach visual range in 12 minutes."

Rio: "Excellent then we will wait until they get us better readings."

We wait for 12 minutes before an image is sent to the bridge. I nearly stand up in shock at what I see.

'That shouldn't be possible. Those are Covenant ships.'

What the image shows is 3 Ceudar-pattern heavy corvettes designated SDV in a triangle formation.

Rio: "Put the entire fleet on high alert! If necessary I will summon the entire Katana Fleet to reinforce us."

Tex: "Do you know these vessels, sir? My records show no similar vessels."

Rio: "Yes, those are Covenant ships. The Covenant is a zealous alien empire that has a thing for slaughtering beings seen as heretics. They also have ships up to the size of 30 thousand meters. The ships we are seeing are just corvettes to them. In other words, they are likely just scouting vessels for a much larger fleet."

Tex: "If what you say is correct. We stand a near 0% chance at victory and could only flee from them."

Rio: "Yes we would have to abandon Earth. Get the probe droid closer to those ships I need to make a call."

Tex begins ordering the droids around while I contact Lex.

Lex: "Hello."

Rio: "Are you secure?"

Lex: "Yes."

Rio: "Good I will be there in a few seconds."

I hang up and teleport to Lex's location.

Rio: "We have a situation, let me fill you in."

One explanation later.

Lex: "That's is indeed a very bad situation. Earth stands no chance fending of off an invasion of the scale you are talking about. Even if Superman was here I am not sure we could win. What do you need from me?"

Rio: "I need you to help me take out these scouting vessels. With your ring, you are very well-equipped to fight them. You will also likely be able to understand their tech and perhaps disable the ships if necessary."

Lex: "No problem. I can do that. What is the plan?"

Rio: "The Aura's Revenge will approach under stealth and get behind them. A small strike team will infiltrate each of the ships and capture them. If that fails the Aura's Revenge will drop stealth and disable their engines and possibly their weapons. I want you to lead a strike team. I will lead one as well and the last one will be led by Yang with Lucario as support. I will give them gear that will help defend them against the Covenant's weapons."

Lex: "Then I will start to get ready and I will meet you with Yang and Lucario when we are ready."

We separate and I head back to the Aura's Revenge to get any more info before the operation starts. What I learned is good news. The Covenant ships are damaged likely from a Slipspace mishap. Eventually, Lex, Yang, and Lucario arrive at the bridge and I give them a magical necklace that creates a recharging shield. I then brief them on the mission. Meanwhile, the Aura's Revenge gets into position behind the enemy, and the Halberd is positioned to quickly enter battle if necessary. We each infiltrate our ships and slowly eliminate the crew.

'This is going good so far but I haven't seen any elites yet just grunts and jackals. I am somewhat surprised the Force works so well against them. I kind of figured they would have stronger minds. I wonder if I try Force Dominate if I can start a rebellion on the ship.'

I tried it and it actually works fantastically the grunts and jackals easily follow my orders and take many elites by surprise. By the time my forced rebellion is quashed most of the crew is dead and only the bridge is left untouched. I continue with my systematic slaughter until I reach the bridge.

'I sense 13 beings inside 2 near the entrance. Let's see how strong-willed they are. Oh perfect they are tired and not extremely strong-minded. Now for them to snap and kill their masters.'

I hear the sounds of screams and panic, then after a bit everything is quiet and I sense the bridge has only 5 members still alive and 1 is about to die. I open the doors and they don't seem to notice as I grab one of the leaders and knock him out as I start using Drain Knowledge on him.

'Huh, so they did stumble here on accident and it seems I am quite lucky as this is the leader of this fleet. The home fleet doesn't know where this fleet is as the communications are damaged. Oh, and they haven't figured out why the crew rebelled and think it's because of a curse.'

Once I finish with the leader I grab the next elite and get most of the same info. When I go to get the third the survivors realize what is happening and try to fight me but I disable them quickly. I called Tex letting him know I had taken the ship.

Rio: "What is the status of the other teams?"

Tex: "Team Yang has engaged in active combat with their ship. Team Luthor has still maintained stealth and has cleared almost all of his ship, all that remains is the bridge and the area around it."

Rio: "Let team Yang know I am going to use a technique that will cause the enemy to go into a frenzy and they need to pull back temporarily."

Tex: "Yes sir."

I then sit in a meditation position and start to send my senses into the ship Yang and Lucario are on. I begin to channel the Dark Side and make all the Covenant forces go mad and kill everything near them. 10 minutes after I begin I stop as I sense most of the Covenant forces are dead. I check in again and give Tex the go-ahead to begin clean-up procedures.

Rio: "Any casualties on our side?"

Tex: "Negative just a single commando droid was damaged but will be serviceable again in a few days."

Rio: "Patch me through to Lex."

Lex: "This is Lex speaking."

Rio: "I got some good news and bad news. The good news is that 2 ships can move the bad news is that 1 can't and you will have to help pull it to our station in Neptune's orbit."

Lex: "Very well. Should I start now?"

Rio: "Not yet. Coordinate with Tex for more guidance. I also have great news and possibly terrible news. The great news is that the main Covenant fleet doesn't know where this fleet is. The terrible news is that the Covenant was apparently nearly wiped out by some unknown threat. Most of their leadership is dead and they lost most of their planets. The info I got came from the leader of this fleet and he wasn't privy to what actually destroyed their home and wiped out a large portion of their forces. He was stationed elsewhere, what he does know is that the Covenant staged a decisive battle against this enemy and won but only technically. A pyrrhic victory. The main fleet or its remnant is looking for a new planet to settle and our system is a reasonable target in the future."

Lex: "So we have at least 2 new probable enemies that are incredibly strong. We know some about one and basically nothing about the other."

Rio: "Exactly and I need you working on reverse engineering the Covenants tech as soon as you can. Their shield tech for their troops is of particular interest to me. That and Slipspace tech. I know you are already so busy but I don't have anyone else qualified that is also trustworthy."

Lex: "I can do it but it will take some time as you already said I have my hands full already with Earthly affairs. If you could send me a report on the info you gathered it would speed up my progress. I captured a few of what I think are engineers you should be able to use your power to learn all they know. If you could summon more intellects it would help greatly."

Rio: "I will take those engineers and I will try and get more summons but I might not be able to help it."

After that the communication ended and I started thinking of what I could do to alleviate the strain on manpower.

'I will pull gacha in a week when I will have 25 tokens to use at once. In the meantime, I need to grind and get to base 100 Luck to increase my odds of getting what I need. I haven't got a skill at Luck 50 so maybe I will at 100. If I don't get someone to help with the manpower shortage I will have to buy a loyal summon. If I do buy one though I will need Olympus and its artifacts. I will ask Tex if he has any progress on locating a galactic map.'

I teleport to Tex to ask if he has any progress.

Tex: "Yes, I was just about to message you that we managed to capture a pirate ship with a usable map. We have Olympus's location and many other points of interest you asked about. I have taken the liberty of uploading the map to you Arwing. We can move to Olympus at a moment's notice. The Halberd will stay behind to repair the new ships we obtained. With the Halberd here I believe you can be rest assured that the Earth will be safe."

Rio: "How long will it take for you to arrive at Olympus?"

Tex: "8 Days."

Rio: "Begin the preparation immediately. You will arrive in a system just outside Olympus and you will remain there until I tell you otherwise. When I order you to move you will capture the planet and once it has been confirmed as secure I will teleport to you and start collecting all the artifacts on the planet."

Tex: "Yes sir. We will leave in 3 hours."

Rio: "Very well good luck and safe travels. I will be working on the SDVs to hopefully speed up the repair and reverse engineering process."

With that, I teleport off the bridge and into the command SDV and begin my work.

'This is going to take a while.'

A few days later Rio sends Darkseid to Olympus so that the Aura's Revenge arrives a short while before Darkseid is desummoned.