G.O.D Complex// Earth Prime

"Wait for me!" shouted Benjamin in distress. He was still struggling to handle the ATV mobile bike, causing him to lag behind. Sebastian, without so much as a glance back, sped forward.

A smug grin crept across Sebastian's face. In his mind, Benjamin could serve as bait while he made his escape.

[Low energy]

His smile vanished at the mechanical alert. His bike began to slow down, losing power rapidly. Before he could panic, Benjamin overtook him, reversing their roles.

"Don't leave me!" Sebastian shouted in terror as the parasite picked up speed, sensing its prey.

[Low energy]

Benjamin cursed as his own bike began to fail. He could feel the engine weakening. Panic surged. There was no way he could outrun the parasite on foot.

"I'm doomed," he muttered.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Laser beams struck the parasite. It screeched in rage, momentarily distracted. Benjamin and Sebastian looked up to see a spherical drone zipping overhead. It turned in midair and opened fire on the parasite again.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

["What are you waiting for, dumb shits?! Run!"]

The familiar voice blared from the comms. It was Nathalie.

Both boys immediately abandoned their bikes and sprinted.

"It doesn't seem to be working!" said Petty in frustration as he piloted the battle bot.

"I can see that," Nathalie replied grimly. "It regenerates too quickly. No matter the damage, it heals instantly. How do we kill it?"

"By hitting it again and again until it can't keep up," said Petty with determination, ramping up the fire rate. Beams rained down on the grotesque parasite.

The creature let out a guttural roar. A half-formed bloody face emerged from its body.

"Grotesque."

"Disgusting."

Petty and Nathalie exclaimed in unison. Petty, horrified but excited, doubled the fire rate.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Kyaaaa!

Benjamin and Sebastian ran forward, barely registering the chaos behind them.

"How long are we supposed to keep running?!" Sebastian cried out.

Benjamin continued to send alerts through the comms, desperate to reach Linus or Levi.

Linus looked down at the flickering red indicator on the console, then back up at the swirling mass that was once a nuclear star.

"If this star has collapsed into a black dwarf, that means this facility's been running on dwindling power for a long time," he said.

"Have you figured out what caused the population to turn into stone?" he asked Cross.

Cross shook his head. "Still investigating."

"What's with the atmosphere here?" Beatrice muttered, arms folded. She watched the back-and-forth between Linus and Cross with an uncomfortable feeling.

They were too familiar.

And Linus? His appearance irked her. Something about his unnaturally white hair, his clear blue eyes—it just wasn't normal. He seemed too clean, too composed.

His companion, however, looked more typical—dark hair, cold eyes, completely unreadable. They were polar opposites.

Others around the room sensed it too. Even Levi was puzzled.

"His EQ seems to match his IQ... or maybe he just knows how to control people? Is it manipulation or something else?" Levi wondered.

The silence was heavy. Then—

Beep!

"Commander Cross, the analysts are done," Paul reported.

Cross nodded. A projection lit up the room.

"It looks like an external force was responsible for the colony's downfall," Linus observed.

Everyone leaned forward.

[High concentration of nuclear particles detected.]

"A new weapon?" Cross asked. The implications were chilling.

"We need to leave," Linus said firmly.

Cross didn't need further explanation. He understood immediately.

"Abort the mission! Get everyone ready to move out!" he shouted.

"Why?!" Beatrice snapped, glaring at Linus. "We still have resources to gather."

"Are you stupid?!" Linus snapped back. "A weapon capable of mass destruction and affecting a nuclear star like this only means one thing."

Beatrice paled. "They're coming to harvest the aftermath."

Beep!

An alert blared. A vessel was approaching.

Everyone turned to the monitor.

The emblem on the screen sent a chill through the room.

"Too late," Linus said.

Cross narrowed his eyes. "It's the Lion Horn ship... an ambassador vessel from Teilvel Colony."

Beep!

The system at the dropship buzzed. Petty's hands froze on the controls.

"What the hell is this, a sci-fi show?!" he shouted.

Nathalie stared at the approaching ship. "Aren't we supposed to be in humanity's lowest era? Where did they get this kind of tech?"

Had they studied history like Linus, they would've known: in Prime Earth, "lowest" didn't mean "weakest." This was an era where all species were at their evolutionary peak. Only the strongest would survive.

Velvet groaned.

"How long is she going to sleep?" said a young voice—impatient and annoyed.

What language was that?

Velvet couldn't place it. The syntax was foreign, completely unfamiliar.

"Don't ask me. Master told me to watch her. If she acts up, I'm to kill her," said a second voice, calmer.

Velvet opened her eyes slowly.

She was bound in a cage with several other captives. Around her stood two towering humanoids—not quite human, but not beasts either.

"Am I in a fantasy novel?" she thought. Then immediately discarded it.

"Mrs., you're awake!" a small voice chirped. A girl approached—human, like Velvet, identifiable by the helmet she wore.

"Where are we?" Velvet asked.

"Jail," the girl said bluntly.

Velvet blinked.

"Haha, excuse her," a man laughed nearby. "Her answers are always unpredictable."

He stepped forward. Something about him reminded Velvet of Linus, though his hair and eyes were completely different—light brown with striking green eyes.

"Who are you all?" she asked.

The man lifted his wrist. A green band blinked in the low light.

"Green flags," she said with a nod. "The good, lawful citizens."

The man smiled. "And you're a red flag—a criminal."

But there was no fear in his eyes. Just curiosity.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Velvet."

"Ah, a code name. You were probably a mercenary agent, right? Judging by your look—half Russian, half Japanese... Quite the beauty. I suppose that's why they didn't send you off for food."

He kept talking. Velvet didn't understand half of it.

Then he placed a hand on his chest.

"Where are my manners? I haven't introduced myself."

He bowed slightly.

"Bright... Professor Bright Fischer."