A few weeks after the Geneva Summit, Alex Price had done what every government on Earth once only dreamed of: built a ship designed to exploit a planet.
It hung in orbit now, a monstrous vessel of steel, alloys, and alien-inspired design, gleaming under the cold light of the Sun. He called it the Planetary Exploiter, a machine built for one purpose to strip Mars of its resources and raise colonies in its wake.
But as Alex stared at the crimson sphere in the distance, the words of the Ancient One echoed in his mind.
She had appeared to him days earlier, in the quiet of his private chamber, her presence like a ripple across the universe itself.
"The fabric between worlds is thinning," she had told him, her voice as calm as the still ocean. "The barriers that keep entities outside are not as strong as they once were. Soon, they will find a way in. And when they do, Earth will not be ready."
She hadn't spoken of his unique nature, though Alex knew she understood it perhaps even better than he did. Instead, she'd asked him to protect Earth, not just with technology, but with everything he was.
And Alex had promised.
Now, as he prepared to land the Planetary Exploiter on Mars, the weight of that promise pressed against his thoughts.
The ship's engines hummed like a titan breathing as it descended. From the bridge, Alex watched the red dust swirl across the planet's endless plains. The machine's armored maw unfolded at the front, revealing a massive emitter array.
"Planetary Exploiter, Phase One: Initiate," Alex commanded.
A beam of concentrated energy shot from the bow, slamming into the Martian crust. The ground glowed white-hot as the beam sliced into the rock, liquefying ore, vaporizing impurities, and channeling streams of raw minerals into the ship's intake vents.
Slowly, but inexorably, the machine began to drink Mars dry.
Back on the orbital station, Tony Stark had his own obsession. He was hunched over a workbench in a zero-gravity lab, fragments of alien alloys floating around him like metallic snow.
"Nanotech suit, check," Tony muttered to himself, flicking his wrist to trigger the nanite reformation. His red-and-gold armor swarmed across his body in a second, then dissolved again. "But if I can get that platinum-titanium composite stabilized, I'm looking at a forty percent strength increase, maybe more."
Friday the integrated AI running on Vision's systems chimed in."Sir, Mr. Price reports Mars exploitation has commenced."
Tony smirked."Tell him not to strip it bare before I get there. I've got plans for that dust ball."
Onboard the Exploiter, Alex oversaw the second phase. Servo-skulls small drone constructs shaped like mechanical craniums with hovering repulsors deployed from the ship's bays. Each carried modular tool arms and micro-fabricators. They began laying the foundations of prefabricated colonies, powered by onboard 3D printers.
Habitat domes inflated. Atmospheric processors unfolded like steel flowers. Construction bots crawled across the Martian surface, carving trenches, laying power conduits, and raising towers of alloy.
Mars was no longer silent. It was being rewritten.
Yet Alex's mind wasn't on the success. It was on the warning.
Entities from beyond. A fabric thinning. The promise he'd made.
He stood alone at the observation deck, watching the red dust rise under the Exploiter's beam. For the first time in months, victory felt hollow. What good were riches, colonies, and power if something far greater was coming to devour it all?
And somewhere, beyond sight, beyond stars, beyond even reality itself something stirred.
Back on Earth, governments were watching closely. Reports flowed into their intelligence agencies. Russia and China, though forced to sign the summit deal, began plotting sabotage. The CIA and MI6 sent agents to shadow Alex's projects, afraid of being cut out of the future. Wakanda sent quiet observers of their own, not to spy, but to ensure Alex's promises held.
Alex knew all of this. He also knew none of them understood the real threat.
The world still thought the game was about resources. But Alex had seen the bigger board.
As the Planetary Exploiter continued its work, Alex whispered to himself, almost like a vow:
"I'll build the colonies. I'll mine the planets. I'll protect Earth with steel and fire. But if the barriers fall… no amount of ore will matter."
The red world trembled under his machines, but Alex's thoughts were already beyond Mars.