Outside of Caelum!

Ruuuumble!

All of Caelum trembled with an intensity that even overshadowed the entrance of the eight war robots when this small war began.

Every Astryilite soldier was affected by disorientation, and though none would face death due to that cataclysm, the confusion it generated was bewildering. Mobility on the battlefield became even more precarious, with frequent blows from the androids and the possibility of getting caught between countless tentacles.

Craack!

The previously fractured ground of the artificial island worsened; cracks multiplied in all directions, even forcing the main ship to rise after resting on the ground for centuries.

Thousands of androids and Astryilites fell into the void of these fissures.

"I'm right in front of an android, now what?" asked an Astryilite soldier in Xenotech armor. On his shoulder, a small circular robot with spider-like legs awaited.

He was at the epicenter of the battlefield, in the east of the island. Despite the sudden strong tremors, he was in a relatively safe position.

The number of androids around him was limited; only dozens of them were visible a few meters away. He was tens of meters away from an android that enveloped him with two unpleasant biomass tentacles.

But that was it; there was no imminent danger, just the constant threat that the ground might suddenly open up, sending everyone into the abyss.

[Alright, on the count of three, throw me at that automaton... three... two... one... Now!]

Swooosh!

Thud!

The small robot was forcefully thrown at the android, impacting its head.

Skitter... Skitter...

Schlink!

The spider-like legs quickly clung to the metal, and in a blink, blue cables with sharp tips unfolded from its body, plunging without hesitation into the android's head!

[!]

The biomass tentacles of the android unraveled, and it used its arms to get rid of the strange device. Obviously, the one executing this maneuver was Cognitron X-12, dividing its attention between the countless androids on the battlefield.

It didn't exactly know what that device attached to the android's head was doing, but it didn't hesitate to remove it.

Crunch!

Finally, with immense force, the hands of the android crushed the small robot, reducing it to a metallic mass with its spider-like legs scattered on the ground.

"Hmm... So, will they let me leave this planet for a day?" asked the confused soldier, not understanding why the ship's AI had assigned him this strange mission. It even warned him not to reveal it to anyone or he would lose the reward.

[Of course, I haven't forgotten what I promised you. But it will be another time; now we are in the midst of a battle, as you can see.]

Nosura responded from the Astryilite's HoloSync.

Craaaack!

"It's alr—" before the soldier could finish his sentence, he silently watched as a crack that almost split the island in half formed!

"Ahhhh!"

He tried to run, but he was literally in the collapse zone, falling into the void without being able to do anything. Although he shouted momentarily from the scare, he knew he wouldn't be harmed.

But getting out of the pile of debris was going to be really annoying...

…

"If that idiot Zarok finds out about this, he'll definitely report it. What a headache."

Eldran muttered to himself as he contemplated the chaos, his eyes burning with flames as he imagined the problems that lay ahead. To avoid it all, he had to deal with the situation without anyone in the other bases noticing.

From tens of meters high, he surveyed the disaster spreading across the island.

Ships flying in all directions shooting the ground, destroying thousands of androids, seven immense robots completely immobile, protected by biomass barriers resisting the attacks from the ships.

Countless androids marching across almost the entire island, and more emerging from the hole in the west.

Furthermore, there was a huge hole in the south, covered with molten stone and metal. It was impossible that he hadn't noticed the horrendous explosion caused by the self-destruction of one of those thirty-meter-tall robotic colossi.

He didn't fully understand what was happening, but when checking the vital status of his soldiers, he noticed he had lost four of them.

Eldran recalled the casualties he had seen up to this point, confirming three deaths and one missing...

He was sure the soldier from the nearly destroyed ship hadn't died. Reviewing the identities of the deceased, he was surprised to find that one of them was a sentinel-type soldier, the same one he had seen in an AI report not long ago.

It was Soldier Draylith; he didn't understand how he had died so suddenly.

"How did he die? Was it in that explosion? No... He was wearing Xenotech armor; such a weak explosion wouldn't even have scratched him," he murmured in confusion.

He examined the files stored in the virtual space, but the last record reflecting the perspective of that soldier indicated that everything had turned green; shortly after, all connections with his armor faded away.

"Weird... so many questions and so few answers," he muttered with an annoyed tone.

Meanwhile, something similar happened to the pilot; his last record was a group of androids surrounding him, and in an instant, he also lost connection.

It was as if something was isolating them from the virtual space of the ship.

Huuuuuuu!

"...What the shit?"

Just when he was distracted checking the records, he witnessed something completely unexpected: from the place where the eight robots emerged, a gigantic white ship hundreds of meters long rose slowly.

Above, a mountain of debris collapsed, cascading down.

Boom! Boom!

Thud!

Without hesitation, he flew towards the ship with such speed that multiple shockwaves were generated as he broke through the wind. However, before reaching a hundred meters, an immense green barrier rose around it, colliding violently against it!

"This fucking thing!" he roared in anger.

As he slowly detached from the sticky but solid biomass, Eldran observed tens of thousands of small drones arranged all over the barrier.

Many thoughts went through his mind. Everything that had happened on that strange day, where everything that had remained calm for centuries suddenly went out of control, led him to a conclusion...

Someone was controlling everything from the shadows!

"I don't know who you are, and I don't care. So die!" two intense blue plasma lights with horrible temperatures began to accumulate in his arms; his stellar core was being used to the maximum. Unfortunately, the power he could unleash was much less than when he destroyed the heads of the Guardians, due to the damage to the armor of his arms.

Full of cracks and with charred parts, they were the manifestation of the pain that comes with dealing with low-quality products.

However, the power about to be unleashed was not something a mere biomass barrier could contain. Eldran was convinced that something from a Type Zero civilization was no match at all for the best of his race.

Pure and scorching plasma that seemed to be directly extracted from a real star encapsulated in a Dyson sphere!

"...Huh?"

Booom! Booom! Booom!

Unfortunately, at some point, he was surrounded by the seven huge robots, and before he could say anything, they all exploded!

Swooooosh!

A gust of wind dragged him hundreds of meters without being able to regain balance.

His vision was blinded by an intense blue light that covered the entire island. From afar, a huge blue fireball swept everything in its path; tens of thousands of androids were instantly turned into ashes, although no soldier died, they all suffered severe injuries from the strong impact.

Although in a few seconds, those wounds began to regenerate.

The ground of Caelum was practically destroyed and melted, forming lava lakes everywhere...

Ships were thrown beyond the island, floating over the ocean.

The thousands of drones covering the island, concealing what was happening inside Caelum from the external Astryilites with the 'SSF' algorithm, were sent in different directions.

At that moment, everything that was happening was detected worldwide!

When finally only a huge mushroom with dozens of rings remained in the middle of an immense crater, and the strong winds subsided, Eldran returned as fast as he could.

He searched for the mysterious ship everywhere, but found nothing!

Eldran flew at full speed, covering the island in an instant, but no matter how much he searched, he didn't spot a shadow of that ship.

"Fuck..."

He tried searching outside the island, but it was time wasted; he ended up returning empty-handed.

"...Is that one of my men?"

It wasn't until he saw a soldier in Xenotech armor floating in the ocean without moving, almost as if he were dead, that he stopped.

Vuuuushhhh!

Flying towards him, he noticed that he was unconscious, removed his helmet, and realized that he was one of the two sentinel-type soldiers that the AI had shown him. Coincidentally, he had recently learned that one of them had died, and now the other appeared in this place.

Clearly, something had happened to them, and they possibly had crucial information, which was what he needed most at that moment.

"Hey, wake up," Eldran shouted at Zyrgon, who remained unconscious.

Slap!

He slapped him, but still, he didn't respond.

"Wake up!"

Slap! Slap! Slap!

"W-what...?" he finally began to regain consciousness slowly. But suddenly, his three eyes widened, and he shouted, "I'm going to kill you, you son of a bitch!"

"..."

Eldran looked at him coldly, "What did you say?"

Zyrgon's eyelids opened and closed in confusion...

He remembered trying to force his way into that ship, and that bastard in the green armor used Draylith's BlasterX, shooting him not only once but dozens of times until the weapon entered cooldown.

Successive impacts shook his body, almost tearing his armor apart at the same time as he collided with its interior. Unable to do anything, he gradually lost consciousness due to the repeated blows to the head and was kicked with indifference into the ocean, all while hearing a male voice speaking in a strange language with a mocking tone.

"...Sorry, Captain, I didn't mean you; I was cursing that green-armored bastard, the one causing all this mess!"

Zyrgon clenched his fists tightly, anger burning in his expression.

Listening to these words with great interest, Eldran noticed the fury in his expression and, with a furrowed brow and a small smile, said, "Let's go to the base; tell me everything on the way..."

…

Zoooom!

Hundreds of kilometers from Caelum, a ship soared through the skies at high speed!

Inside, Kraynnor gazed at the ocean landscape with a strange smile, a mix of relief for getting away from that war zone with the terrifying golden-armored Astryilite and that dangerous mothership. Although he felt some melancholy for leaving his hometown again.

"Haha, at least I managed to kill several of those bastards," he said with a smile, continuing in a jovial tone, "I also didn't expect to capture a specimen alive, what a great gain!"

One thing that weighed on him was losing hundreds of thousands of androids, although he couldn't carry more; his ship didn't have infinite space.

"Ah, never mind. I'll create more when I need them."

Kraynnor stopped talking to address his friend, "By the way, what did you say about that strange feeling before?"

The question arose because Cognitron X-12 had detected something when taking off, a brief intrusion into its system that lasted less than a second. Although brief, it left Kraynnor worried that someone had infiltrated the ship's systems.

[About that...]