POV Grand General Keldore
"This should be a good area to rest," Malekith reports.
"We should press on with the attack before we are spotted," warns my second.
"No, we have been traveling for almost a week, and there have been no signs that the enemy is aware of our presence. The troops need some rest so we can fight at our full capacity," replies the crew officer.
"Enough! We shall press onwards. His Grace wants Asgard dealt with, and we shall not delay by even a moment. The troops will just have to put up with it," I order firmly.
Everyone relents and prepares to enter the warp point. As we cross it, I am sent flying across the bridge as we snap out of it moments later.
"What the Hell happened!?" I shout as I stand up.
But as I look around, I realize that most of the crew were either stunned or injured and unable to operate the command station. Then I saw the scanners and looked out the viewport.
"By the Majestor..." I say in shock as I see a vessel beyond anything I had seen before.
The vessel was unreasonably large. Several alerts caught my attention as several vessels appeared behind the fleet.
"It's a trap! All crew to your battle stations!" I shout and try to get everyone to resist.
But despite my panic, the enemy didn't make any moves.
"This is the RSS Harmony of the Kingdom of Gaia. You are violating our borders; retreat or be destroyed," the enemy ordered.
The audacity of their demand infuriated me, so I stalled for time to give us time to prepare for battle.
"This is the 5th Imperial Fleet of the Shi'ar Empire. We have suffered a malfunction in our Warpdrive and cannot leave at this time. Once we fix the issue, we shall do as commanded," I say back.
POV Shift Rio
"I smell fear... Click Click Click Click. And it smells. Click Click Click Click. Delicious," my magic clone says creepily.
I look at him from the side with raised eyebrows.
"It fits, doesn't it?" the clone that has taken the form of Admiral Trench says with a smile.
"I hope this isn't racist, but you are hideous," I say with a grimace as that smile grosses me out.
"Now, now, calling yourself ugly isn't necessary," my clone mocks.
I turn to the lieutenant.
"Lieutenant, arrest that man!" I order.
The droid looks at me with confusion.
"Arrest him!" I order again.
I hold it in for a moment before bursting into laughter.
"Are you done?" asks my magic clone.
"Yeah, I'm done. So should we just keep letting them prepare their pointless attack?" I ask.
The Shi'ar hadn't turned their ships around. Well, not all of them, and they were clearly buying time to get their crew to their stations and in a fighting condition. I only gave them a chance because even if they took it, it would work for me, as others would be scared of this mysterious Kingdom that caused the Shi'ar to flee. And if they fight, then the Shi'ar will be too busy dealing with internal and external threats to bother with us again. The Kree and Nova will not miss an entire fleet going missing, and that will scare anyone, as an entire Imperial Fleet was erased with no survivors. And the mysterious and unknown will scare them more than just announcing my Kingdom to the universe. That would hopefully buy me the time needed to expand the fleet and make us truly ready to make my claim to the Galaxy.
"All weapons are primed to fire. The Invincible and Endurance are also in position. They will take the brunt of the enemy attacks, but the two additional Providence-class destroyers should also be able to hold their own against their rear forces," the magic clone reports.
"What about the warp points? Are they all inoperable?" I ask for confirmation.
"Yes, they will only leave if they agree to leave, and we are sure they are actually doing so," the magic clone responds.
"Good, then fire on my command," I order.
I meditate for a moment to calm myself and to pass the time.
"They have made their preparations," I comment.
The Shi'ar don't even bother trying to deceive us and open fire. I let their attacks hit the Harmony to see the pinnacle of Shi'ar Technology. And it was a disappointment. They were much better than the Pirates we fought before, but their weapons were still pathetic when attacking the Dark Matter Deflector Shields we had installed. Not that they were even needed, seeing as the armor of the Harmony was indestructible.
"Fire!" I command and watch as the tens of thousands of guns open fire and rip the enemy fleet to shreds.
"You've got to be kidding me! No shields!" my magic clone can't help but comment.
"Not quite. Look closely, and you'll see they do have shields; they are just so weak that they might as well not be there," I comment while rewinding footage to show what I spotted.
I really didn't need to do that as I was technically talking to myself, but it was still interesting.
"It's still a pathetic showing from the supposedly strongest Empire in the universe," the magic clone comments.
I couldn't argue with that. It was clear that the Marvel Universe was super advanced in some spots but archaic in others when compared to the Star Wars Universe. But I guess that helped me, as it meant this would be an easy mission and save a lot of lives.
"Oh? Looks like Malekith is trying to sneak away. Focus fire on Point 98," I order, and moments later explosions erupt as Malekith's stealth ship is torn to pieces.
POV Shift Grand General Keldore
I feel as if time slows as I watch ship after ship being annihilated by the enemy. Even my ship had been hit hard and was falling apart at the seams, and yet I couldn't bring myself to care. The battle was already lost, and there was no point in resisting.
'How did this happen to me?'
I was the highest-ranking military commander in the Shi'ar Empire. I had fought enemies across the universe and worked for nearly a century to get where I am now. I earned the title the Unsinkable as I had never lost a ship in any campaign I fought.
'Yes, that's why. I never faced a superior foe.'
I let out a sad laugh as I realised that the Empire I served was doomed. My pride had made me believe that I would march into Asgard and annihilate it. Instead, I would be annihilated, and I couldn't even send word about what had happened here as the comms were being jammed. I could see on the scanners that some tried to flee, but that too was pointless. Our warpdrives didn't fail en masse due to sabotage or mechanical failure; they failed because the enemy had something that prevented the use of warpspace. Something that I knew should have been impossible. Nobody had managed to build such a weapon in the billions of years of the universe's existence. And yet here I was witnessing history being made.
'At least that coward Malekith didn't survive either.'
"Critical Failure In Reactor Bay 3. Immediate Reactor Purge Suggested!" the computer alerts the few remaining crew on board, but I couldn't care less.
"It doesn't matter," I say with an empty smile as the reactor blows up, vaporizing everyone.
POV Shift Rio
The enemy flagship turns into a partial star for a few seconds, annihilating the ship and all on board, but I didn't care that much, as the battle had already started to wind down, as the main enemy ships had been dealt with and now all that was left was to deal with the stragglers.
"Damage?" I ask.
"They managed to deplete the Invincibles' shields. But the damage past that was fairly minor; we just lost the Heavy Ion Cannon. The Endurance lost 96% of its shields, but they stand strong. No permanent fighter losses, but the temp losses were 121 fighters and 37 bombers," my magic clone reports.
"News on those starships attempting to flee?" I ask.
"All dealt with by the Trifighters. Nothing we have seen comes anywhere close to the speed of the Droid Trifighter. Honestly, it makes me realize that those things were scary even for Jedi," my magic clone reports.
"Yeah, I both understand and don't understand why they didn't choose to use them after the Clone Wars," I comment.
The Droid Trifighter was a beast on the battlefield, and the Separatists literally wiped its memory after every sortie to avoid it developing too much. They were basically a supercomputer that could fly and were beyond lethal on every battlefield they were deployed to. The only downside would be the production cost, but I was still very tempted to try and produce some for myself. The only problem was that trying to study them was really hard, as they always move around and I can't order them to land or anything like that.
"Well, let's get this wrapped up, I got some things to do," I say with a stretch.
"You mean a snowball fight?" the magic clone says, unimpressed.
"Maybe..." I counter.