Chapter 174: Chapter 174: The Interstellar Emperor Is Here
09-07-2501.
It was another perfectly ordinary day on Earth. Billions of ordinary human citizens were going about their daily lives, completely oblivious to the cosmic politics unfolding above them.
Some rode shinny levitating trains through the towering glass skylines. Some drove their personal hover cars along the magnetic highways. Others simply enjoyed a peaceful, sunny afternoon at beautiful oceanfront resorts.
However, slowly but surely, a massive, unnatural shadow began to fall across the golden sky.
At first, the people thought it was just a passing storm cloud or a sudden, normal solar eclipse.
But the terrifying abnormality became impossible to ignore when a deep, world shaking hum echoed violently above their entire planet.
Hummmmm!
It was a heavy, suffocating mechanical sound that was simultaneously heard and felt by every single living being on the blue planet.
Crash!
The vibration alone rattled the windows of every skyscraper and sent intense ripples across the oceans.
---
"Ahh!"
At one of the coastal resorts, a beautiful young woman had to violently press her hands against her head to stop her eardrums from bursting apart.
"What the fu*k was that?"
Trembling, she looked up to the heavens to find the cause of the terrifying noise. But the exact moment her eyes focused on the sky, her face instantly drained of all color.
"Fu*k Me!" she whispered in absolute paralyzing horror.
---
Deep within the scorching dunes of the Great Sahara, a wealthy family was enjoying a guided hover safari.
The blazing afternoon sun beat down heavily on their open air cruiser.
Suddenly, the desert was cast out in an eerie twilight.
"Hey, look dad! Is a sudden storm coming?" the little boy asked, pointing toward the darkening horizon.
The father pulled down his dark sunglasses, his brow furrowing in deep confusion.
"A storm? In the middle of the Sahara? The weather forecast didn’t say anything about clouds today."
Hummm!
Before he could finish his sentence, the suffocating hum struck them.
Buzz!
The sand dunes to literally collapse and slide like water.
And the hover cruiser’s engine sputtered and died, dropping hard onto the sand.
"Honey, what is happening to the car? Why is it so cold all of a sudden?"
"Look up! Daddy, look at the sky! Something is swallowing the sun!"
The father looked up, and his heart skipped a beat.
Soon, the colossal metallic underbelly of a world breaking fortress was slowly blotting out the heavens, stretching as far as his eyes could see.
"Is it our doom?"
---
High above the cloud line, on the freezing peak of Mount Everest, two lovers stood at the absolute edge of the world.
The man had just dropped to one knee, pulling a velvet ring box from his heavy winter coat.
He smiled warmly, his eyes full of hope.
"Sarah, from the moment I met you, my life became an adventure. Will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry..."
Before the word could fully leave his mouth, the snow around them violently thrown away by a very high gravitational pressure.
It even exposed the bare valleys below.
"Mark! Get up! Get down!"
Mark stared blankly at the sky,
"What... what in the world is that?"
"Look above!!"
Sarah pointed a trembling gloved finger at the apocalyptic nightmare materializing right above their heads.
"Forget the ring, Mark! Look at the sky! The heavens are breaking apart!"
---
Meanwhile, just outside the Earth’s atmosphere, inside the command deck of a mid level Mercenary Ship.
The mercenary crew was only supposed to be monitoring standard commercial traffic until their missiom starts.
But suddenly, every single alarm on the ship simultaneously buzzed under red light..
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"Captain! We have a massive UIB (Unknown Interstellar Body) on the long range sensors!
It is not a meteor shower! Spatial rifts are tearing open right outside our primary defense perimeter!"
The Captain with gray hair rushed over to the reinforced glass viewport.
"Junky, Identify those signatures, immediately!" he ordered.
However, when he reached the window, his jaw completely dropped.
"What The—"
The coffee mug in his hand slipped from his grip.
Junky, the junior technician replied,
"Negative, Captain! The energy readings are off the charts! It is a fleet! Three massive Tittan class signatures! No... It’s its even bigger."
"Huh! Something bigger than Titan Class? Something like that exist?" another member said in awe.
Outside the glass, three colossal cosmic rifts were forcefully tearing the void apart.
They were radiating two distinct dark purple and golden energy.
From those dark purple and golden energy, the three LORD Class warships of the Zenith Empire slowly emerged.
They were so incredibly massive that their sheer size instantly dwarfed all the nearby space stations, making them look like a mere insect in comparison.
While the image of those cosmic behemoths reflected in the Captain’s eyes, his whole figure started trembling uncontrollably.
"Captain, are you okay?" his crewmates rushed to help, but he stopped them with his hand, saying he was fine.
Then, in a grave voice, he said, "I feel destruction, my friends! Flee! Flee before it starts. Flee before we turn into cosmic dust!"
His teammates realized how serious the situation was.
The small mercenary ship then fled like a rat.
But behind them, a domineering declaration echoed:
"THE ZENITH EMPEROR IS HERE! SURRENDER OR BE ANNIHILATED!"
The voice did not belong to Neo Godson. It was from Warrior Commander Vaelar, bearing the authority of third rank in command.
"Never! The United Federation will never bow down to a dictator!"
The Sol-III Federation reacted from left and right.
With 50 Titan-Class warships, 500 dreadnoughts, and 100 million stellar soldiers, they were a formidable force.
With their might, they could easily conquer a planet or two.
Despite all that, they still looked pitifully small compared to those 3 LORD Class flagships.
Neo smirked from the central flagship.
His voice was like the echo of a celestial body.
"I initially did not want to target my home planet. But what a pity that the Federation is run by some old fools. They do not know their limits. Today, I am simply here to uproot them."
