XT-00526: Cerberus

Note: The words battleships and warships are not used interchangeably. Battleships are smaller in size carrying maximum of ten to twenty Asceptus whereas warships are larger and carry thousands of humans at a time.

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The dusk zone was located towards the end of one of the arms of a spiral shaped galaxy. This region was very prone to cosmic storms such that one such storm hit it every five decades or even less, making it one of the regions that was not capable of supporting life. The entire region was filled with cosmic gases with a few rare stars scattered throughout it.

The dusk zone was never a subject of interest to any civilization, that was until humans made a military base on one planet in this zone. The justification given for this venture was two words long: 'strategic location.' But that did not justify the astronomical number of resources that were required just to navigate the zone, let alone building the military camp.

...…

Klesen wore a full set of armor that was made of the best resources that the human civilization that spanned across two galaxies. To add to that, this armor was also enchanted with some high tier magic enchantments that could only be performed by select few.

The five companies each comprising of more than a thousand soldiers each were all seated in tens of master class warships. Klesen walked to the only commander class warship in the fleet and boarded it. The engines were turned on without creating any sound and all the warships took to the air.

The warship carrying Klesen was the first to move and immediately disappeared towards the horizon followed by other warships disappearing in groups.

All of these warships arrived at the 'southern pole' of the planet, covering tens of thousands of miles in a few minutes. The warships remained hovering in mid air while camouflaged and began a thorough search of the area underneath.

The entire atmosphere was eerily quite as no one made any sort of noise while the warships silently surveyed the area.

"StarCraft 7 reporting. The enemy camp has been spotted. Sharing the co-ordinates." A sound emerged from the hull of every warship, breaking the silence.

"Everyone gathers at the location." Klesen's voice was communicated to all the captains, who immediately steered their massive warships to the shared location.

Once again, there was absolute silence while some of the curious soldiers looked outside in an effort to spot the enemy camp, doing so wordlessly.

Tens of seconds went by in the absolute silence. Klesen did not bother giving any further commands and just looked at the projection of the underground camp that was projected on a holographic screen before him.

"Cerberus-9 company reporting in."

"Cerberus-5 company reporting to war duty."

Seven more warships were added to the fleet as the two companies that were going to report at the field arrived, carrying some weird looking gadgets on each of them.

"All warships take position."

The seven warships that carried those strange devices immediately moved forward, forming the first encirclement around the underground camp while hovering in the air.

"Charge up the main canons and prepare to fire."

The keels of all the battleships opened silently and large nozzles pointing towards a singular point expanded outwards. The empty nozzles slowly turned a light shade of red which started deepening every passing second.

"Fire."

Klesen didn't wait for the nozzles to charge completely and ordered a premature strike.

'Ohhng! Ohhngg! Ohhngg!...'

Red colored lasers, each about five meters in diameter were fired towards the ground, aiming at a single area around a hundred square meters in size.

Something invisible stopped the first laser beam, but this invisible shield immediately shattered when the second beam made contact with it.

'Boommm!'

A deafening explosion could be heard on the surface of the planet, but the interiors of the warships remained completely silent.

"Prepare for the second volley. Switch on the space locking system."

The second volley of lasers did not strike prematurely. Instead, the power was gathered inside the nozzles till each of the nozzle shone bright red and then fired in rapid successions. Klesen's warship did not fire in this second volley and instead waited for some time. Another invisible shield was up in the time that it took for charging the canons for the second volley.

The first beam of red light fell on an invisible shield and was slowly scattered away. The second beam left a small invisible crack on this invisible forcefield, the third made a visible hole, the fourth a crack large enough to fit a tennis ball. The fifth beam enlarged the hole so that a complete beam of five meters diameter could pass through it. All the remaining beams dug into the ground and dealt damage to the Asceptus camp.

A fleet of Asceptus warships could be seen leaving the underground camp and hovering in the air. The number of warships was increasing as time passed and they moved crazily in all directions to dodge the lasers aimed at or near them.

Once all the beams of the second volley were fired, the battlefield entered a brief period of silence where both the sides stared at one another with hatred burning in their eyes. This stare down lasted only a brief instant.

"Fire!" Klesen's voice did not get past the cabin he was in, but to everyone on the battlefield be it human or Asceptus, it felt like someone had whispered inside their ears. A melody for the human side whereas an evil screech for the Asceptus.

A black coloured beam of light or rather a beam devoid of light was fired towards the point where the highest number of Asceptus battleships had gathered.

"Turn on the space locking system."

"Sir."

The strange devices resting on tops of the warships creating the first encirclement lit up at the same time.

Something unimaginable happened in a brief interval of time that followed this attack. The photons that were dispersed in the air after the previous beams started to shake as if excited by something. The surroundings were darkening at a visible rate and the pitch-black beam was lighting up ever so slightly every passing second, until the instant when everything in the surroundings turned pitch black and the beam was shining with all sorts of colors.

Everyone on the battlefield had to close their eyes to prevent themselves from going blind by the brightness of the beam, except Klesen. A mark similar to what Regis had on his chest appeared on one half of Klesen's face. His light blue pupils lost their color and slowly turned colorless. The bright beam was reflected into his eyes which started to morph once again.

When this change ended, Klesen's pupil had turned into a square that looked exactly like the resplendent beam of light. Klesen immediately shut both his eyes.

When the darkness was lifted, only an immeasurably deep carter was left in the space filled with Asceptus battleships. Despite the empty looking battlefield, none from the human side looked as if they had won. Because they knew that this wasn't the end.

As if to affirm this, a battleship that was the size of a room appeared in the airspace above the newly formed carter, followed by multiple battleships of varying sizes.

This was exactly what made the war against the Asceptus so difficult for humanity. The Asceptus had been around for a much longer period than the humans. This was also their advantage as their technology was more advanced, enough that they could sacrifice a large number of battleships to help the others survive an attack that could easily obliterate planets.

"Start the leap jamming. All units get ready for engaging."

The devices which had been employed to limit the scope of the previous attack let out a low sounding humming sound. The result was that the fuel in the Asceptus battleships suddenly freezing in their spots, unable to perform spacial leaps.

Tens of thousands of humans dressed in different types of battle suits were leapt out of their warships to fight against the thousands of Asceptus who were coming out of their battleships while cursing out. The real Asceptus looked a bit different than the Asceptus bots that were used to train the cadets, but the defining features remained the same as the bots.

"Move the battlefield." Klesen's words reverberated through the cockpits of all the warships.

"I was wondering who was crazy enough to ignore the rules and use a planetary level weapon when in a battle limited to a planet. Have you forgotten the rules set by the Assembly of Universal Civilizations Arbrit Klesen?" A horse voice rang through the space above the battlefield.

"It's just that I am sure that no one will ever come to know that I used a planetary level weapon." Klesen walked out of the command ship with his armor on. In front of him were two Ruler level Asceptus commanders.

"You are too confident for your own good. Know your place you lower race filth." The second ruler said with rage apparent in his tone.

If one were to look at the battlefield, the humans appeared to have an advantage in numbers, but the weapons and battle suits they had on looked outdated when compared to the ones worn by the Asceptus soldiers, except Klesen whose battle suit seemed to be of a similar level as the near transparent battle suits of the two 'Rulers'.

Klesen tapped on the screen of his Holowatch while looking towards the two Rulers with his eyes still closed. Slowly, the screen of his helmet moved aside and Klesen felt the hot air brushing past his face.

"Are you sure that you will be able to escape and report this to your superiors?" Klesen asked the first Ruler while ignoring the banter of the second one.

"Your pitiful race still tends to act all high and mighty due to some minor advantage in the battle of weaklings. It is in your best advantage that you do not be insolent and act as if a Ruler's words mean nothing to you." The first Ruler was unhappy with the way that a member of lower race ignored another Ruler.

"As for the confidence, do you think that you will be able to keep your life, much less stop us?"

"Yes." Klesen replied and opened his eyes that had been shut till now.

"You crazy lower....!" Both the Rulers bellowed in anger.

"Don't worry. I won't use a self-harming attack to deal with the likes of you." Klesen replied.

The expressions on the faces of the two Rulers changed again as they felt something creeping up their suits. Both of them looked down at the same time and nearly froze at the sight that greeted them.

While they were still frozen in shock, Klesen appeared before them and punched a hole in both their armors simultaneously with his fists.

"I hope you enjoy it." Klesen said while looking down.

The two Rulers tried to move, but they were met by resistance. Another beam of light, a white one spanning tens of meters in diameter was fired from the ground and the two Rulers disappeared in it along with their armors.

The battlefield had shifted nearly a kilometer away from the point it started. The devices mounted on the warships had frozen the space and carried the entire space away with them. The deep carter had also disappeared and replaced by a ground covered in ice.

Klesen moved towards the battlefield where all his subordinates were fighting.