Genocide

The exchange of blows on the ground continued in pursuit of the escaping mothership. It was equipped with ionic shields that repel a certain amount of damage and a massive firepower. It took down almost half of the NEA's first batch of forces but just like a retiring queen bee; it never won against the stings of the majority. It suffered blows on its main engines that made its escape harder and eventually met its bitter end.

On its final moments, the mothership emitted a deafening noise and a blinding light. For a few seconds, it disrupted everyone's senses and even the electronic systems of machines and AIs surrounding it. It then abruptly shut down in mid air for some reasons and crashed on the ground.

Cheering roared as they finally took down the biggest ship that towered above the city.

Forces of NEA began raiding the fallen mothership. Arresting the surviving crews and soldiers along with the confiscation of their weapons and the deactivation of their AIs troops.

But one problem emerged as they finished checking the whole mothership.

"𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 is 𝘌𝘭𝘰𝘯 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘵??"

Meanwhile...

Somewhere around the Ionosphere.

𝘙𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥.

𝘋𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘰 𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴.

The ML1 then released its nano mites around the globe using the power of the stone particles and with the help of the Ionosphere's charge. The nano mite's goal is to fetch the molecular structures of each impurity/pollutant surrounding the whole planet. The data that'll be gathered by the nano mites will then be registered in ML1s database. It'll serve as its basis for the purification process. Due to the vast distance, the ML1 needed time to finish the whole reset process.

It was all smooth and peaceful until a freaking vortex/wormhole appeared right in front of us!

A battleship rushed through the vortex and fired lasers towards the ML1!!

We rushed and defended the ML1 with an Ionic shield built in my suit. The use of ionic shield drains the suit's power faster than using its combat features. The reason why I never used it in battle. But this time's different. I have to defend a stationary target.

Exactly what my enemy wanted.

"A pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Madrid" Elon sent a voice message via an encrypted frequency.

He bombarded my ionic shield with everything he got knowing the ML1 is just behind me and Ionic shields has a limit. His shots destroyed a lot of nano mites gathering data nearby which partially slowed down the whole process.

I can't move.

My suit's power is draining and another bad news came...

A message from the NEA.

"Commander, we have a serious problem."

Elon used the remaining power of the mothership to create an unstable Vortex inside one of the ship's areas. One of the raiding teams accidentally entered the area where the vortex has been initialized and triggered a sudden reaction. The collision of the Earth's atmosphere and the space's deadly vacuum collided created a syphoning effect.

It started to suck everything and everyone close to it into space. Closing the door doesn't fix the problem anymore since the chain reaction had already gained momentum.

"F*ck! Get away from the Mothership! Evacuate everyone!"

I commanded as I looked at my depleting power that was counting down from 35%.

"Cass, calculate the amount of power needed to close--"

"29%" Well, she's literally in my mind.

Without further ado, I pushed the ML1 with my back into a position against the Sun while maintaining the Ionic shield.

Elon continued to bombard me with all he got but this time, I sensed an increase of inaccuracy in his shots due to the Sun's brightness.

"Cass, are you thinking of what I'm thinking?" I asked.

"Of course. I'm ready when you are."

I abruptly fired up my thrusters carrying ML1. Elon failed to notice our movement due to the Sun's brightness. I got to turn off the Ionic shield at 33% and Cass loaded the exact amount of negatively charged photons to shut down the Vortex in case the plan doesn't work.

In a nick of a second, I fired projectiles in front of him and on his battleship's main engine; causing his ship's loss of mobility and function.

It's now moving backwards involuntarily to the vortex due to the motion given by the projectiles that detonated before his ship. We've already learned that Vortices in this era only work in one direction. Unstable vortices are quite the same but harsher. The only difference is they disintegrate everything that comes in contact with it on its opposite side down to its atomic level. When that happens the photons on his ship's explosion will cause the vortex' closure and I'll get to keep my 29% of power.

"What have you done!? You imbecile!" His words as he struggled to gain back his control over his ship.

He shouted and cursed doing his best to reboot the already fried circuits of his ship. I just listened to my satisfaction.

As soon as he realized there was nothing more he could do.

He laughed.

And laughed so hard and said something quite disturbing.

"You probably think you already have won, don't you? This is only the beginning, you fool! HAHAHAHAHAHA"

"Huh?" puzzled I went near him and attempted to ask.

Before the vortex could swallow his battleship he looked at me with contempt and detonated his ship manually using hand grenades.

He knew my suit was down of power. He knew it would be a suicide if I close the vortex using my suit's remaining power. He knew his ship was my only hope for survival...

"Joe, you can't do this." Cass warned me of the plan I was thinking.

My suit's power was down to 31%.

"Hibernation mode on. I'm sorry, cass." I hibernated her. Leaving me floating alone with the Vortex I needed to close.

It was almost 12 midnight of November 8, 2031.

I found myself staring at the vastness of space. Appreciating the art the creator crafted. Despite the exhaustion I felt, floating weightless relaxed every nerve in my body. I turned and looked at the Earth. I looked at the things the Vortex has sucked into space...

I took a deep breath...

and fired the negatively charged photons to finally close the Vortex.

[To be continued]