Chapter 453: CH453: PREPARE FOR WAR
War.
Many months ago, the Granian race’s Lords and Elders held a gathering where orders were given for the majority of their soldiers and resources to return to Planet Grania from all of their colonies in Akrina. The Granian leadership realized they had expended far too much time and energy capturing, defending, and losing resource-rich colonies instead of attacking their enemies, the Ethisians.
They realized they had been approaching the war the wrong way, and as a result, they suffered greater losses on their end. The only benefit from that strategy was the discovery and rise of the Blood Mutants. Even then, they lost two of their four Blood Mutants because their focus remained on conquering planets and expanding their territory rather than confronting the Ethisians.
As soon as this flawed tactic was reviewed, the Granian Lords and Elders recalled every soldier, every ship—Granian and allied—and all resources back to Planet Grania. With the Ethisians possessing ships capable of traversing vast distances almost instantly, the Granians could not afford the risk of stretching their forces too thin any more than they already had.
Once all the Granian forces and resources were consolidated on the planet, the red-scaled Granian, Lord Gravax, alongside thousands of brilliant minds like himself, began enhancing their military capabilities.
The first major improvement was the creation of perfected Granian clones. The Granians had always possessed cloning technology, but their earlier clones were nothing more than expendable meat shields used to overwhelm weaker species and distract enemies. The first clones were ineffective in real warfare, and for a long while, Lord Gravax attempted to unlock the true potential of cloning—and at last, he succeeded.
With the ability to quickly produce battle-ready soldiers, the Granians no longer feared a shortage in numbers. If anything, they worried more about transporting their now large army, another problem that was solved yet again by Lord Gravax.
The Granian Lord replicated, improved, and weaponized the Ethisians’ interdimensional travel technology. Like his enemies, he could now transport ships from one end of Akrina to another in the blink of an eye, but that was not all.
Using star seed harvesting, Gravax and his people captured the power of dying stars, dwarf stars, blue giants, and black holes—turning them into weapons capable of unimaginable amounts of destruction. They developed specialized, handheld armaments capable of channelling the immense destructive force of a star into concentrated blasts that could incinerate bodies, fleets, and entire armies in an instant.
Their ships, now equipped, fuelled, and armed by these miniature suns, possessed the power to annihilate planets, or even entire solar systems, within Akrina.
None of this progress came without cost.
In their pursuit of power, the Granians exhausted most of their previous energy reserves, lost hundreds of thousands of their own kind to failed experiments, and, worst of all, lost two Blood Mutants and one of the few highly ranked female Granian Warriors.
Even when faced with these setbacks, they saw it all as worth it.
The loss of lives and resources was seen as a necessary sacrifice for what they had gained—their new weapons, their new trump cards. And very soon, they believed they were ready to be used to eradicate the Ethisians and all their allies. They just needed a bit more time.
Unfortunately, that time never came.
Reports soon reached Planet Grania: the Ethisians and their allied armies advancing through Akrina, pillaging Granian colonies and reclaiming what was once theirs and taking even more in the process.
It seemed the Granians weren’t the only ones who underwent immense development and evolved to better their odds at winning the war.
Judging by the fear in the scouts’ voices, the Ethisians were ready to hit the Granians with all they had. They were prepared to wage total war. To make matters even more interesting, they had somehow managed to integrate their own Blood Mutants into their military forces.
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After Lord Grania heard about the Ethisians and their allied forces advancing through Akrina, he decided to pay his allies a visit.
The Granians, as a species, had long provided protection, innovations, and trade to other species. Now, it was time for those allies to repay their debt by aiding them in the war. And what better way to ensure cooperation than by traveling with two of his deadliest living, breathing, killing creatures?
A ship was prepared specifically for the Granian Lord—a newly designed model befitting his status.
The vessel was long and large enough to carry over fifty Granians. Its front was shaped like a wide oval disk, tapering into a sleek, rice-grain-like structure toward the rear where powerful boosters were mounted.
Two wings extended from the front, each fitted with boosters underneath and lined with turrets along their length. Additional turrets were mounted above, along the sides, and at the rear. Beneath the ship lay a massive turret gate, as long as a school bus. Inside it rested one of Gravax’s sun-powered cannons whose capabilities were yet to be tested.
The ship’s exterior was black, accented with shades of gray and glowing green lines running across its surface. A rugged, weathered texture gave it a battle-worn appearance, while a blood-spray decal across the front made it seem as though it had already torn through countless enemies.
This single ship could conquer a planet—and in the hands of an experienced, bloodthirsty pilot, eradicate an entire solar system.
’Who better to wield it than the proud, arrogant, and pompous Granian Lord?’
Strangely, however, Lord Grania was none of those things now.
Since the moment the scout delivered his grim report—before having his head crushed—Grania’s demeanor had shifted. He was no longer loud or boastful. Instead, he had become cold, stoic, and unsettlingly composed.
Ace and Cherry couldn’t help but notice the change. It felt unnatural.
"My Lord," Gravax addressed him one final time before he embarked on his journey to their allies, "the ship has been fitted with an interdimensional traveling mechanism. It operates similarly to the war machines we tested. Sleeping quarters have been prepared for you at the rear, and containment units for the humans are also in place. You are the captain of the ship, but a crew of my clones will accompany you to handle everything else. I also..."
"Save me the tedious details, Gravax," Grania interrupted as he brushed past him and boarded the ship. "Your clones will inform me of what I need to know. While I’m gone, prepare for war. Exhaust every resource we have at our disposal, Gravax. Every resource."
With those instructions given, Lord Gravax, Ace, and Cherry departed from Planet Grania, setting course for the Cyclitharan planet—the only allies they had capable of being of use to them in the war.
As for Gravax...
’Every resource, huh.’ He grinned as one particular person came to mind.
