Inside the Universe 546876,
"Kai!"
Lilith's voice cut through the bunker's speaker breaking the silence, devoid of its usual professional vibe. The raw shock in her tone indicated the palpable disturbance.
"The live feed from Aria... is gone, including the bugs and sensors stopped responding... Everything went dark simultaneously."
Kai, who had been resting calmly suddenly, snapped his eyes open and replied, "Not just Aria, I lost the connection with my army, on the other side."
The unsettling black of his irises seemed to absorb the dim light of the bunker. He rose quickly from the plush couch, striding toward the main tactical display that was now a dead, gray screen.
His expression became solemn, the sudden disappearance of his most skilled subordinate, and the severance of link with his army without any response, it is like a cold blade to his confidence.
"Aria?" Kai muttered thoughtfully and commanded, his voice unnaturally calm, trying to reestablish the connection to his most valuable subordinate.
As the clock ticked, he did not receive any response except silence. Aria, who was trained to maintain a silent communication link even during high-intensity combat, had suddenly disappeared without sending a single packet of data, nor a final warning.
"Check the portal feed... did anything emerge from it?" Kai asked, turning to Vera, the weapons specialist, whose harsh gaze was now fixed on the portal display with a look of tense alarm.
"No visible energy signature, Kai. The portal is extremely stable and silent. We didn't notice anything emerging from the portal. No blasts, no visible aircraft, no fire, no plasma signatures."
Vera's voice was strained, the absence of any movement near the portal proving the danger of the opposite civilization more terrifying than any clear threat.
After a little silence in the room,
"Aria's disappearance is really a huge loss. Probably the army we sent on the other side has also been wiped out."
Kai stated, his voice flat, accepting the fact with ruthless expression. "The enemy definitely possesses abilities related to mass destruction, it isn't possible to destroy so many undead in such a short time."
He turned away from the display, looking toward the other displays showing the scenery of the whole city and his remaining army. His plan to use the undead as an endless, terrifying tide had failed against a defense that viewed mass as merely a collection of critical points.
"Lilith," he commanded, fixing his attention on his most reliable subordinate. "New plan. We are changing from reconnaissance to a Decisive Strike."
Lilith immediately straightened, the shock wiped from her face, replaced by the thoughtful expression, "Decisive Strike?"
As she expressed doubt, Kai explanation sounded from her earpiece,
"I am aborting our both personal deployments for now. The enemies on the other side haven't shown their full hand, and I will not risk exposing my core abilities. Vera will lead the secondary force, preparing the Aircraft Carrier Brigade."
Lilith hesitated, her intelligent eyes narrowing slightly. "Are you talking about nuclear payload, Kai? Is it possible to strike without a clear target?"
"No," Kai corrected, shaking his head. "The primary objective is not surveillance now. It is forced engagement. We will use the destructive Long Range Barrage nukes on the other side. Our actions will definitely force them to reveal their command center, their infrastructure, and their true defenses."
He walked over to a display and manually highlighted the fleet of eight salvaged, reinforced aircraft carriers, each one modified to survive the hazardous atmosphere of their world and equipped with powerful, yet crude, thrusters in this military base.
They were useless in this dead civilization, now remodeled as flying weapons carriers. He turned toward the Vera behind him and instructed.
"Vera, prepare three aircraft carriers and you will lead the tactical team. I want you to breach the portal, fly low, and deploy a staggered barrage toward all three directions. Force them to react. If they use any kind of weapons, you must pinpoint the origin point. If you see their primary base, transmit the coordinates and retreat immediately. Do not engage in direct conflict against them. Your safety, and the carriers' safe return, is the priority."
Vera nodded, a grim resolve settling on her face. "Understood. We will make them bleed, My Lord."
"Go, and Vera," Kai added, stopping her at the door. "Find the traces of Aria. She may have been captured, not killed. I need all of my partners ready for the next phase."
...
A few hours later, the subterranean military base emptied of activity, except Kai and Lilith remaining with few other subordinates… tracking the mission status.
On the surface, three colossal, flat-decked carriers, looking like massive, airborne iron whales, rose into the purple twilight.
Their thrusters roared, consuming vast amounts of fuel, their hulls etched with red bloody crystal shaped armors that helped them cut through the thick, hazardous air.
Vera sitting in the command chair of the lead carrier, her hands steady on the operations. The air around the golden-red portal crackled with dark energy as she accelerated her carrier directly into the swirling vortex.
The transition was violent, a dizzying tear through dimensional space that lasted only a few unnerving seconds. When they emerged, the sight was a stunning, disorienting shock.
The green-gray, toxic air of their world was instantly replaced by a blinding, orange sky. The world below was not the ruined cityscape they knew, but a seemingly endless, pale yellow sea of sand. The sudden loss of Aria's and destruction of the swarms had created a vast, silent graveyard of smoking corpses just ahead of their path.
But the immediate, physical reality of the new world was the most critical threat. Suddenly the aircraft shook and pulled everyone back to their senses.
"Captain Vera, We're losing lift! The gravity signature is higher than the standard of our planet!" the flight mechanics on Carriers screamed into Vera's headset.
Vera also felt the punishing, invisible weight immediately. In their world, the crude lift thrusters had been sufficient to overcome the normal gravitational pull. Here, the sheer density and power of UHS1's planetary core, slammed into their massive airframes.
The carriers, designed to fly hundreds of meters up, suddenly plummeted. The lift engines shrieked in protest, straining against the punishing, unrelenting downward pull.
"Full throttle! Speed compensates for gravity, just keep the handle steady." Vera hurriedly instructed, pulling back on the yoke with all her augmented strength.
The carriers slowed their descent, but they couldn't regain altitude. The relentless, powerful gravity suppressed their flight, forcing them to fly only a few tense tens of meters above the smoking, corpse-littered sand. The immense airframes rattled violently as the pilots fought for control.
Below her, the ground was a burr yellow... a vast, hostile, unending desert. The air was clean, sterile with sand dust, and offered no oxygen, no support, only the cold drag of physics optimized against them.
Vera stared out the reinforced viewport, her face pale with shock. She had expected resistance, not a fundamental alteration of the environment.
'This atmosphere is really a disaster for living creatures like us.' A unified thought flashed through the whole tactical team operating these carriers.
The view of the annihilated horde... the Giant Zombies crumpled like discarded toys, the sand dunes covered with the corpses of Rat Swarm. Now combined with the oppressive gravity to form a devastating, silent threat assessment.
"Status report!" Vera hurriedly demanded.
"We're stable, barely. But fuel consumption is critica.We cannot sustain this flight for more than fifteen minutes. The G-forces will rip the old hulls apart if we try to maneuver at attack speed!" The operators hurriedly replied.
Vera's eyes scanned the hostile, empty horizon, thinking the plan had failed before implementation.
They couldn't fly high to scout, they couldn't fly fast to evade, and they couldn't hover to launch a stable barrage, they were just the three naked flying targets, struggling to stay airborne under hostile physics.
'Kai was wrong. This isn't a game of war between civilizations; it's a test of nature. Our world's old and salvaged technology is utterly incompatible with this world's physics.'
She remembered Kai's primary order: The carriers' safe return is the priority.
Vera slammed her fist onto the console in anger. The sheer, overwhelming superiority of the enemy, achieved not by firepower but by planetary difference, was a profound defeat for their civilization.
"Abort the mission! Full reverse thrust! All units, turn around and get us back into the portal now!" She raised her head and commanded, her pupils filled with unwillingness.
The operators immediately obeyed and started controlling the aircraft carriers.
The three colossal carriers struggled, the physics of UHS1 fighting them every inch of the way, but Vers and the tactical team, fueled by a panicked desperation, managed to wrestle the heavy airframes into a sharp, fuel-guzzling turn.
They sped back toward the colossal golden-red vortex, abandoning the offensive before a single missile could be launched.
…