The Fractured Dominion
Location: Deep Void – Blacklight Fleet vs. Kran Armada
The battle raged on, an inferno of shattered metal and burning plasma.
The once-dominant Kran Shadow Fleet was now in disarray. Where once they had been the apex predators, lords of subjugation, they now reeled in chaos, their formations collapsing under the relentless assault of Blacklight's ghost ships.
Aboard the S'khal-Class Dreadhunter, Supreme Rythar Zhal'Korr's claws dug into the control panel. Impossible. The Terrans should have been overwhelmed. Instead, his fleet was dying.
"How are they moving through our defenses?!" he roared, his golden eyes burning with fury.
A Lurker-Class Phantom Frigate beside his command vessel erupted in a silent explosion, its gravitic core rupturing in a chain reaction as a Revenant-Class Stealth Fighter delivered a Nyx-1 Torpedo directly into its power relay. The Kran ship imploded, its husk spinning lifeless into the void.
Zhal'Korr snarled. "Adaptive cloaking! Target disruptor bursts! FIRE EVERYTHING!"
Blacklight Counterstrike
The Eclipse Lance maneuvered through the wreckage, unseen, unheard. Onboard, Vale's gaze remained locked on the battlemap.
Aegis' voice was crisp. "Enemy flagship attempting countermeasures. Their gravitic cannons are retargeting, but jamming protocols are holding. Their panic is increasing."
Vale exhaled slowly, watching the Kran frantically redirect power, desperately cycling through targeting solutions.
"Perfect."
Aboard the Phantom-Class Destroyers, orders were already executing. Hybrid Rail-Lance batteries ignited, launching kinetic slugs at relativistic speeds—each impact sending Kran warships spiraling into chaos.
Wraith's corvettes slipped into the Kran ranks, their AI-guided recon drones transmitting every weakness in real-time.
Then came the kill order.
"Break them."
Destruction in the Void
The Reaper-Class Cruisers targeted the Kran capital line, unleashing dual 200mm FTL Rail Cannons into their Dreadhunter's reinforced hull.
The first shot shattered its shield arrays.
The second tore through its command deck.
Zhal'Korr barely had time to react before a Nyx-1 Kinetic Torpedo from the Eclipse Lance ripped through his ship's lower decks.
The Dreadhunter buckled, its massive hull breaking apart. Fire and atmosphere vented into the void.
The Kran command net collapsed.
Panic erupted among the remaining Kran captains.
"Fall back! RETREAT!"
But the void offered no mercy.
Blacklight's Revenant Fighters tore apart the stragglers, their pulse lasers cutting into escaping vessels.
One by one, the Kran warships detonated, shattered under relentless precision strikes.
The Last Survivor
A single crippled Nysskar-Class Void Reaper drifted in the wreckage, its hull bleeding fire. The bridge was dark, its crew either dead or desperately clinging to life.
Inside, Kran Commander Vharrak lay against the bulkhead, breathing heavily. His crimson-scaled body was covered in deep wounds, his right arm hanging uselessly from the plasma burns that had melted through his armor.
Through the fractured viewport, he saw what remained of his fleet—burning, broken, erased.
This was no mere defeat. This was annihilation.
He coughed, dark ichor spilling from his mouth. His eyes flicked to the tactical display, to the Eclipse Lance, the ghost ship that had orchestrated this slaughter.
A faint transmission buzzed through the dying comms.
"Commander Vharrak… confirm survival status…"
He growled. "Barely."
"Orders?"
Vharrak's claws scraped across the floor, his body wracked with agony, but his mind burned with something deeper—
Hatred.
"Relay everything to the Dominion. Tell them… humanity is no longer prey."
The transmission cut.
His last thoughts before the void swallowed him were of vengeance.
But vengeance would not come swiftly.
The failing reactor core of his vessel let out a violent shudder, and a flickering red warning display painted the wreckage in a sickly glow. Containment breach imminent. His ship would not last another five minutes.
His scaled fingers, slick with his own blood, dragged across the console as he forced his remaining strength into one last act of defiance. He rerouted emergency power to the escape pod systems. But the ship's response was brutal and uncompromising—
Escape pod systems unresponsive. Life support failure imminent.
Vharrak snarled, his breathing ragged. The Dominion did not tolerate failure. If he lived, he would face worse than death.
With a final command, he sealed a distress beacon within the remnants of his ship's black box. A failsafe. A warning. A call to war.
Then the containment breach detonated.
The Nysskar-Class Void Reaper exploded in a final, fiery burst, its debris scattered across the void. But among the wreckage, a small, near-undetectable signal pulsed—
A beacon racing toward the Kran Dominion.
It carried a single message:
"The humans are no longer prey. But they will be hunted."
The Aftermath
The battle was over.
Wreckage drifted, the final remains of the once-mighty Kran Armada, their empire's first great defeat at the hands of a species they had once dismissed as nothing.
Aboard the Eclipse Lance, Vale stood silently, watching the destruction unfold.
Aegis' voice broke the moment. "Confirmed. Kran warfleet eliminated. No distress signals transmitted."
The war had only begun.
But this battle… was Blacklight's victory.
Vale smirked.
"Let them remember this day. Let them fear the dark."
The Aftermath
The battle was over.
Wreckage drifted, the final remains of the once-mighty Kran Armada, their empire's first great defeat at the hands of a species they had once dismissed as nothing.
Aboard the Eclipse Lance, Vale stood silently, watching the destruction unfold.
Aegis' voice broke the moment. "Confirmed. Kran warfleet eliminated. No distress signals transmitted."
Vale's eyes shifted downward, to a secondary display—Earth.
Occupied. Defiled. Stolen.
His fingers clenched into a fist. His voice, steady but cold, cut through the bridge comms.
"Deploy the Blacklight - Warbringers"