10 First Meeting

Looking out from the bridge of his ship, an aged, balding man with white hair looked out into the vast reaches of space. His muscular, scarred figure was relaxed, his left hand clasped around his cybernetic right arm behind his back. All around, various alien species, all denizens of the great Viltrum Empire worked the monitors and directed the ship through the field of debris.

'The Vrangs, warmongering fools.' The man thought, lips curling in disgust causing his scarred visage to take on a truly monstrous appearance. 'Do they believe us weak after our defeat at the hands of the Green Lantern Corps? They've spent too long battling our ancestors, the Kryptonians that they've lost touch with the changes that the universe have undergone.'

Many millennia ago, when the Green Lantern Corps had not existed, great empires were free to wage war as they pleased. Conquering planets and annexing vast swathes of space. One such race had been the Kryptonians who had spread out across the stars during the Age of Expansion. An age in which no race had been able to match the great Kryptonian people. They had been the dominant force in the universe, unmatched, unparalleled. The perfect race.

Except, they weren't.

Kryptonians had overextended themselves and so, retreated back to their home Sector of space. Their great Kryptonian Empire was in ruins, rival forces attacking and conquering, cutting off outposts of Kryptonians that had not been able to evacuate in time. The Viltrumites were one such outpost, they were one of the lucky ones.

Many Kryptonian outposts had been annihilated. Some survived for a time but with no reinforcements were hunted down and killed, or soon starved to death.

The Kryptonians that later developed into the Viltrumites had made their outpost on a planet on the outskirts of the Kryptonian Empire. They had been the forerunners, a special military group that had been one of Kryptons very best. They survived by mating with the local populace, they were weak and in turn, their own bloodline had been weakened, but it had been worth it to survive.

It took many centuries, but eventually, Viltrumites expanded their own borders in a similar way to the Age of Expansion and created their own empire. One named after them and their new home-world, Viltrum.

Yet things were different.

A new organisation wielding strange powers had formed, a universal police force that monitored and protected the Galaxy, the Green Lantern Corps had formed. Viltrum only managed to conquer a handful of planets before a task force of Green Lanterns arrived. Despite scoring the initial victory, their plans for a great Viltrumite Empire came crumbling down when the second battle took place.

The Green Lanterns came in force, numbering twenty in all. A small number compared to the hundreds of Viltrumites that faced them. Yet they had been defeated, the Green Lanterns this time being far more powerful and skilful.

One amongst them was perhaps the most terrifying, Yalan Gur. He singlehandedly as a show of force destroyed an entire planet before their very eyes. It was uninhabited but nonetheless, it was power, unlike anything they had seen before. And so, their dreams of a powerful empire came crumbling down before it could even properly begin.

But there was a loophole.

So long as a planet agreed to join a preexisting empire, then the Green Lantern Corps could do nothing. It was certainly not as glorious as battle and conquest, but it provided them with the chance to build their empire as they had wished to from the beginning.

"Conquest." Turning, the aged man looked to see the young Viltrum woman, Anissa walking towards him. She was a young lass, buxom and beautiful, a perfect choice for any man. Beside her, Lucan, a muscular black-skinned Viltrum entered also. Unlike Anissa who had power, Lucan was much weaker, still powerful but hardly one of the most powerful. "We have orders from Grand Regent Thragg."

"Oh, and what has he said?" Conquest asked curiously.

Anissa smiled. "He has petitioned to the Guardians. The Vrangs attacked first, we now have the right to retaliate." Conquest huffed in annoyance at the meddling of the Guardians but nonetheless was pleased with this development.

"Excellent," Conquest murmured, spreading his arms out. "Then let us partake in the old ways."

-X- Line Break -X-

Viltrumites.

I knew of them of course, from both of my lives. They were a part of the Invincible Comics in my old world and in this one, they were an offshoot of the Kryptonian race, much like the Daxamites. It was certainly shocking to me though when I first learned of them and was another reason I was wary to leave the safety of Krypton.

This wasn't just the world of DC comics like I had first expected. My training had not been purely physical and had researched many of the great empires and organisations in the universe. Even more so upon becoming the right-hand man of General Zod.

He had ambitions. A new Kryptonian Empire, one that spanned across the entire Universe and returned the Kryptonian people to the position of absolute power. Yet there were many obstacles that stood in our way this time, obstacles that hadn't been present millennia ago.

There was of course the Vrangs, but there were many more besides that, obstacles such as; Apokolips, New Genesis, the Lantern Corps, the Citadel, the Thanagrians, the Reach.

Those alone were dangerous threats, but unfortunately, they were not the only ones. There were many, many more such as the; Viltrum Empire, Coalition of Planets, the Daemonites, Kherubims, D'rahn, Plenary, Vigil, Yuuzhan Vong, the Vine, the Charter, Xandar, Galactic Council, Rigellians, Shi'ar, Spartoi, Kree Empire, Skrull Empire, the Badoon, Alpha Centurians, Asgardians, the Brood, Celestials and the Phalanx

This was just to name a few of the opponents I would have to face in the future. Not to mention all the individual beings comparable to full empires upon their own. Conquering the universe would not be easy and I also knew that it would require facing beings comparable and surpassing Doomsday.

But in order to do that, I needed power and I needed cannon fodder.

The Vrangs were good due to how fertile they were. They reproduced on a massive scale which would provide me with an excellent source of manpower. The only downside to this was that they were too weak and I needed stronger opposition.

It was why I had directed more troops to the Citadel front. The biggest opponents they would face would be the Citadellians as well as the Gordonians and the Warlords of Okaara. Considering the size of the Vrang military, they should be more than capable of holding off any counter-attack by the Citadel forces.

Meanwhile, I would personally lead the attack against the Viltrumites. Why the Vrangs picked a fight with them I'll never know, all I cared about was getting my hands on more durable and powerful servants and the Viltrumites were such a force.

I fully expected rebellions from the Vrangs, and I expected them also from the Viltrumites as well. However, considering my power I felt that I was more than capable of handling any of that. After all, Vrangs were weak and the Viltrumites were just poor, weakened versions of Kryptonians whereas I was a full-blooded and genetically modified Kryptonian.

Victory should be easy for me and dealing with rebellions should also be no problem either. Both races were the might makes right society and with my power, I should be the strongest.

Therefore, rebellions should be far and few between before my rule was assured.

"Emperor, there is a Viltrumite warship approaching us." I rose a brow, just a single ship. "Shall we engage?"

A single ship? I knew that from my time reading the Invincible comics that the Viltrumites were nowhere near as powerful as the likes of Superman or General Zod when exposed to a yellow sun. Admittedly they wouldn't know I was amongst the Vrangs, but even so, were they that confident that a single ship was all it would take?

"Yes, blow them away." I gave the order and watched as the Vrangs on the bridge scrambled to carry out my orders. A few moments later hundreds of energy rounds were fired followed by hundreds more, all converging upon the Viltrumite ship.

There was no sound of an explosion like in the movies, space was a vacuum that made it impossible for sound to exist without outside interference. And even the fire of the ship was quick swallowed away, smoke billowing out from the wreckage. But my eyes picked up on movement, a white figure blurring towards our ship and my eyes widened in shock.

'Fast!' I thought before I too was engulfed in fire, cries and screams sounding before being silenced by the vacuum of space. Smoke clouded my vision, the heat of the fire subsiding before it all burst away, the figure of a young woman stood before me.

Both of us remained floating in space, staring at one another in a mixture of curiosity and bemusement. She was beautiful, short black hair, full lips, a busty and curvaceous, yet athletic figure that her tight-fitting white bodysuit did little to hide. She was very beautiful and familiar to me.

'I really need to start writing down what I remember from comic books just to remind myself of everything from my old world. I may have an eidetic memory, but it's not a perfect tool like I initially believed.' I reminded myself as the two of us remained floating in the air, she actually growing closer and tracing one hand over the rough edges of my armour, even pressing her finger down against a sharply jagged edge of the breastplate.

However, when she did, she quickly withdrew her finger, looking at the cut that had formed in wonderment. Her gaze trailed to me and I smirked, something she returned and I saw the eagerness shining in her gaze.

This was a woman that liked to fight.

'Anissa?' I questioned, looking at the woman closer, finally beginning to piece together who this woman was. 'The one who raped Invincible. For a complete bitch, you're pretty hot.'

My thoughts were soon interrupted when she moved. Perhaps I was a little too lost in admiring her figure as I noticed the movement of her arm a little too late. That was when the blow struck me across the face and for a moment I was left with a dull ache in my cheek before I was launched through space.

My body crashed through two Vrang ships before I managed to catch myself in midair. 'That hurt.' It didn't hurt as much as a blow from Doomsday, but it still hurt. 'And she's not even one of the strongest Viltrumites.'

Which made me wonder how strong they were?

What was clear to me now though was that I had perhaps gotten a little cocky after completely annihilating the Vrangs singlehandedly. I'd done what most other villains did and gotten overconfident and underestimated my opponents.

Luckily I had caught this mistake sooner, rather than later.

Eyes tracking my surrounding, I noticed something in my peripheral, turning just in time to see Anissa swinging her fist towards me from the right. I dodged the strike, grabbing hold of the wrist in my right hand while driving my elbow into her stomach. Somehow she managed to retain her breath which was not what I was aiming for.

A Viltrumite couldn't breathe in space, all they could do was hold their breath for a certain period of time. Rob them of that precious air and they'd be no different than any other alien species, useless and suffocating.

And so, keeping hold of her wrist, I smashed the back of my fist against her cheek, nose breaking and blood spurting out, floating in space. Once more we remained there, Anissa seemingly shocked by the blow if her wide eyes were anything to go by. Yet she recovered, swinging her fist around once more but I caught the blow.

Once again, it packed a surprising amount of strength behind it, actually forcing my hand to buckle slightly, however, I held firm. Even as Anissa tried to leverage her strength and push against me, I remained rooted to my spot only to be caught by surprise as Anissa smashed her head against mine.

My head whipped back, grip releasing hers and she used this to slam a power kick into my stomach and throw me through space once more. 'So this is a Viltrumites strength?' Righting myself, I tracked Anissa's movements as she darted towards me, fists blurring as she threw out dozens of strikes aiming to beat me to death. 'Certainly, it's impressive, but compared to Doomsday and the power I've gathered, it's hardly anything to worry about.'

Parrying and dodging the blows sent my way with relative ease, I saw an opening and slammed a powerful uppercut into her stomach. I didn't hold back with this blow as I had done the others and Anissa was thrown back and I flew off after her, one hand reaching out and bracing against her back.

Just this simple act brought her momentum to a stop as her mouth opened in an attempt to breathe, clawing at her throat as she suffocated in the vacuum of space. This was what I had been aiming for, but I had no intention of letting this woman die here.

I still had use for her.