Chapter 86: Day of Infamy (Invasion – Part 1)
Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman belong to DC. No infringement is intended.
Six Months ago, planet Elia, capitol of the Dominion
Once upon time Elia had shared its orbit around its sun with another populated world. It was a source of racial pride that the debris of that sister planet still rained down upon the city states of the Dominion to this very day. Within the capitol of Elia, though, the center of power of the mighty Dominion empire, thoughts were not on the perpetual rain nor on ancient victories, but on matters far more current and important.
"This situation requires immediate action!"
The Dominator standing before the assembled High Caste council had no name; none of the Dominators had a name. They were Dominators, that was enough, and the size and adornments of the disc tattooed on their foreheads was all the identification they needed, for the caste was everything. This one's disc identified him as a member of the Intelligence caste, those tasked with keeping an eye out for threats and opportunities.
"Elaborate!" the speaker of the High Caste demanded. "Why do you propose that we abandon our tried and true methods of subversion in favor of open, direct military action?"
"My superiors, our usual approach, while undoubtedly infallible and ingenious, requires the one thing we do not seem to have in this situation. Time. Developments surrounding the last of the Kryptonians are progressing too fast."
"What developments do you speak of?"
"Ever since we first became aware of their continued existence due to their attack on the Lyme research station, we have gathered much information on them. As best as we can tell, they are but a small group, led by a single adult female, and containing no more than three or four specimens at the most. Regardless of their small numbers, though, our conclusion is that the last of the Kryptonians are currently in the process of recreating their people's empire.
"Their leader, a female designated Kara-El, is forging alliances at an ever-increasing rate. Already the planets Rann and Colu are allied with her. As a direct result of the Kryptonian's intervention, there were revolutions on the planets Dhor and Alstair, both of the new regimes are sympathetic towards her. She was also involved in the collapse of the Citadel Empire in the Vega system, though reports on the extent of her involvement differ. The last of the Martian Manhunters is among her group of enforcers and while the government of Thanagar denies all knowledge, Thanagarian Hawkmen have also been spotted in her ranks. Finally, and most importantly, the Guardians of Oa have assigned not one but two of their Green Lanterns to her command, thereby giving her their de-facto blessing as this galaxy's ruling power."
The High Caste shared several looks between them. "These are indeed worrying developments. What is it that you propose?"
"My superiors, the Kryptonian's main base of operations is a small planet near the galactic rim called Earth. While still a primitive world by our standards, the Kryptonian seems to be rapidly accelerating its technological development. A century ago they had barely mastered atmospheric flight. Now they are building bases on their moon and making plans to mine their system's asteroid belt. This speed of development is unprecedented.
"Additionally, our reports state that the indigenous species, called humans, has already produced an alarming number of outlier beings with enhanced abilities, thus supplying the Kryptonian with a steady stream of elite soldiers. There are even rumors of genetic compatibility with Kryptonians and that half-breeds have already been created. Given the extreme individual powers of even a single Kryptonian, what an entire army of them might be able to accomplish boggles the imagination.
"My superiors, I propose that we take immediate action to remove both the surviving Kryptonians and the planet Earth from the equation for good in order to stifle the rebirth of the Kryptonian Empire before it can become a threat to the Dominion."
The deliberation among the High Caste lasted less than a minute.
"While we detest acting openly, it does seem that we do not have much of a choice in this particular case. This galaxy rightfully belongs to us, no one else. The Kryptonian Empire will not rise again! We shall give the order to assemble a fleet. The last of the Kryptonians will be exterminated. And as for planet Earth, we shall see whether its genetic potential can be utilized for the eternal glory of the Dominion. If not, it will be wiped from the heavens."
The Present, Justice League Watchtower
The alarm claxons in the Justice League Watchtower had barely begun to sound when a red and blue blur entered the station's command center. Blue eyes focused on the monitors and their displayed reports and widened as the full implications of the alarm became apparent.
Without hesitating for more than a fraction of a second, Kara activated the com and sounded a general alert.
"This is Superwoman calling all Justice League members! We are on high alert as of now! Long range sensors detect a huge mass of hyper flares just beyond the orbit of Neptune. Computers estimate more than 300 spaceships have exited hyper space and are currently accelerating towards the inner solar system. I fear we might be looking at a full-scale invasion!"
Thinking for just a second, Kara activated a second com channel and repeated the message, which was now going out to just about every superhero, vigilante, and extra-normal person the League had ever encountered. Acknowledgements streamed in quickly, even as more people appeared in the Justice League's command center.
"300 ships?" Clark asked, stepping up beside his mother. He had yet to be officially inducted into the Justice League, but ever since the events of the Citadel War, just about everyone considered him one of the team.
"At least," Kara replied. "Readings are getting hazier by the second. Looks like someone is putting out some pretty heavy signal jamming."
The sparkle of a teleportation beam heralded the arrival of Batman and Wonder Woman.
"Looks pretty serious," Batman remarked, though his voice was as even as ever. "You think this is what Brainiac warned you about?"
"Possibly. I won't know until I head out there to check personally, but I doubt this number of ships is just out for a peaceful stroll."
She turned away from the monitor and looked at the people already present, her thoughts going a mile a minute. Adam Strange had arrived, as well as Hawkwoman and Green Arrow.
"Batman, go back to Gotham and be ready to initiate our stratagems for an occupation scenario! Diana, GA, you're in charge of the second line of defense on the surface! Adam, get the Javelins prepared for combat! Hawkwoman, you're in command of the Watchtower!"
She turned to look at Clark. "You and I are going to take a closer look!"
Clark merely nodded, his face deadly serious. They both had a bad feeling about this.
Earth Defense Command, Brussels
Barely a minute after the alarm had gone off in the Justice League Watchtower, another alarm went off in a brand-new building in Brussels. Ever since Superwoman's famous speech in front of the United Nations and the joint mission to bring the first moon base online, a lot of international effort had gone into creating a unified structure for dealing with things out of this world. It had been a wake-up call of sorts, making people all over the globe realize that aliens (who most definitely did exist and were not nearly as far away as people would like) would not care about any national boundaries when they came a-calling, be it for benevolent or other reasons.
One of the first success stories of this campaign was the Earth Defense Command (EDC), a joint command structure that was to take charge in case the various militaries of planet Earth needed to jointly face a common foe. General Philip Blankenship, a highly decorated veteran who had already served as head of NATO, had been appointed its first commander just two months ago. He liked to think that he had been selected for two reasons: one, because he had a lot of experience in command, and two, because he was just a few years away from retirement. Enough time to get the organization off the ground and then hand it over to the next generation of officers. He had actually welcomed the assignment, considering it both a challenge and the chance to spend the twilight years of his career doing something worthwhile instead of simply pushing papers at some desk.
Neither he nor anyone else, of course, had expected the EDC's first trial by fire to arrive this soon.
"What have we got?" General Blankenship asked as he strode into the command center. All the equipment was brand-new and the paint on the walls was probably still wet, too.
"We have been relayed an alert from the Justice League Watchtower," one of the technicians reported. "Apparently their sensors have detected what could be a large-scale alien invasion force appearing from hyperspace beyond the orbit of Neptune."
Blankenship still had trouble believing that words like hyperspace and alien invasion force were now part of his job. It was part of the reason why so many of the people manning the various monitors looked so terribly young to his eyes, too. New ways of working and thinking required young minds, he reminded himself. Well, this old mind was still capable of adapting, too.
"Very well, people! Let's hope for the best but prepare for the worst! This is what the EDC was created for. Put out a general alert to all military forces! I want a video conference with all designated commanders in ten minutes!"
His people scrambled to comply and Blankenship closed his eyes for a moment, gathering his thoughts. He hoped that this was just a false alarm. Maybe Superwoman was just giving them an opportunity for a trial run under realistic conditions.
If not, though, they could be in serious trouble.
Outer solar system, orbit of Jupiter
The two sole survivors of the doomed planet Krypton raced around the vast bulk of the planet Jupiter at speeds measured in hundreds of kilometers per second, utilizing its massive gravity to accelerate further. Even their enhanced eyesight needed time to find things as comparatively tiny as a fleet of ships in the infinite vastness of space, but when they finally zeroed in on them, they were impossible to miss.
"Those don't look like peaceful explorer ships to me, mom," Clark said over their com.
The ships certainly looked very distinctive. There were few straight lines to be seen, the ships' hulls looked more like the result of organic growth. The closest thing Kara could think of to describe their shape was some kind of octopi, a large, roughly egg-shaped central hull with organic-looking protrusions that almost resembled tentacles or spikes. Kara had never seen these particular ships before, but she knew them all the same.
"They are not," Kara confirmed. "I recognize the basic design. Those are Dominion war ships."
Clark cursed and Kara almost reprimanded him for it out of habit, but figured that now was as good a time to curse as any.
"Think they are angry we stole one of their ships?" Clark asked.
"It's not like we had much of a choice, but I doubt they will see it that way."
The two Kryptonians came to a relative stop several kilometers ahead of the fleet, a laughable distance in outer space.
"Let us see what they want," Kara said, then changed the frequency of her com to several that were used galaxy-wide for exchange of greetings and hails.
"Attention, Dominion fleet," she announced, speaking Interlac. "You have entered the sovereign territory of the people of Earth. State your intentions!"
There was a moment of silence as the large fleet of ships seemed immobile in front of them, but was actually still accelerating towards planet Earth. Then, finally, the com crackled in her ear.
"For crimes committed against the Dominion," a voice boomed in heavily accented Interlac, "the Kryptonian known as Kara-El and all other surviving members of her species will surrender themselves for execution. The planet Earth and all its inhabitants are hereby annexed into the Dominion. You will comply or be destroyed!"
Clark and Kara shared a look. This was bad. This was really, really bad.
"Dominion fleet, this is Kara-El," Kara finally replied. "You seem to be laboring under a misconception. Neither I nor any of my people are responsible for the destruction of your research station, nor the deaths of three of your people. We tried to protect them, but unfortunately, we failed. You have our sympathy, but we will not accept punishment for a crime we did not commit. Nor will planet Earth accept being annexed into the Dominion. If you wish to establish diplomatic relations, we will welcome you in peace. Otherwise, turn around and leave!"
"You really believe they will simply turn around and leave?" Clark asked after she had turned off her com.
"Not really, but I might be wrong."
From what she knew of the Dominators from her school days back on Krypton, it was highly unlikely that they could be convinced to resolve this peacefully. Krypton's knowledge had been out of date, though, and the three Dominators they had encountered during their journey had been, if not friendly, at least open to discussion. So she retained a small shred of hope.
There was no further verbal communication from the Dominators, though. Instead, the space around the two Kryptonians was suddenly alight with weapons fire.
"It seems we are now officially at war with the Dominion," Clark said, even as he evaded several bright lances of energy at super speed.
"Looks like it," Kara replied, moving at super speed herself. "Let's try and keep casualties to a minimum regardless!"
Flying closer to one of the ships, she let loose with a burst of heat vision toward what she estimated to be the ship's engineering section. The bright red beams ricocheted harmlessly off a force field, though.
"Tougher than they look," Clark said over the com, having tried to and failed to get a hit of his own in.
Kara briefly went over what she knew about Dominator technology and how it compared to Kryptonian tech. Her knowledge of Dominator tech was mostly based on historical records and what she had gleaned from the Dominator ship they had appropriated during their time lost in space. The fact that much of Dominator technology was based on plant growth, while Kryptonians had based theirs on crystal growth, made comparisons rather difficult as they were so extremely different.
She knew that their hyperdrive technology was comparable, if not superior, to that of Krypton. Hardly surprising, given that Kryptonians had not put much effort into further developing space flight technology in the last few thousand years. The Dominators were also known as the finest genetic engineers in the galaxy and had a definite penchant for the more subtle arts of warfare and espionage, as the control chip Brainiac had appropriated for use on Kona had shown.
Unfortunately, Kara knew little of the Dominators' level of military technology. The ship they had stolen had been an unarmed transport ship, not a military vessel. Clearly their force field technology was formidable, but what about their offensive weapons?
Kara deliberately slowed down as she passed one of the ships and allowed one of the energy beams to hit her. The impact sent her tumbling head over heels, her flight disrupted. Her invulnerability, actually a force field of her own, kept her safe from harm, but the hit still hurt.
"Mom, are you all right?" Clark asked.
"Fine," she replied, speeding up again. "I wanted to see how their weapons rate."
"And you thought getting hit was the best way to do that?" he asked, exasperated. "If I had done that, you would never let me hear the end of it."
"We can easily weather a single hit or two," she told him, ignoring his outburst. "But we should probably avoid being caught in a crossfire from dozens of them."
Putting some distance between herself and one of the ships, she quickly turned around and accelerated, shooting back towards it like a missile.
"Now let's see how tough their force fields really are!"
Half a second before she hit the force field around the ship, Kara let loose with another burst of heat vision, which hit the ship's field a heartbeat before she did. The shield buckled under the double impact and Kara shot forward, her invulnerable form crashing right through the ship's engineering section. A moment later she was away again, leaving a disabled ship behind.
"One down," Clark said, catching up with her. "Think we can take them all out that way?"
Kara shook her head; the impact having dazed her a bit. Looking around, she saw that quite a few of the ships had already shot past the two of them and were continuing towards Earth.
"Maybe, but we won't be able to take out even half of them before they reach Earth!"
Thankfully Kryptonians, while giving up space flight, had never forgotten that there were other space-travelling species out there who might develop an interest in taking over a defenseless planet. Thus, even during their most stagnant periods, Kryptonians had made sure to keep their defensive technologies up to date.
"Kara-El to Fortress," she spoke over her com. "Activate planetary defense net! Target: Dominion warships! Primary objective: disable as many ships as possible!"
She flew up next to Clark. "Let's head back!"
"We have a planetary defense net?" Hawkman asked as he stepped into the Watchtowers command center. "Since when?"
"Do you ever pay attention during the meetings?" Hawkwoman shot back, even as her fingers flew over the controls of the Watchtower. "Kara told us about that months ago."
"So why didn't we use this planetary defense net against Brainiac?"
She gave him a long look. "Really, Carter? You are asking why we didn't use a planetary defense net built from Kryptonian technology against an attack by Brainiac, the crowning achievement of Kryptonian technology? Really?"
Hawkman grumbled, but did not continue the line of question.
"Those are way too many ships," he said, checking out the readings. More than a few of his previous incarnations had been warriors and generals. He had never fought a war in space before, of course, but the basic principles were the same. "No defense net is going to be able to stop them all."
Hawkwoman nodded. "You're right, I'm afraid. And they're jamming across all frequencies, so I doubt our call to Gardner and Sinestro has gotten through."
Hawkman snorted. "I doubt it is coincidence that this attack is taking place now, a week after our resident Green Lantern has left for his galactic patrol tour."
He stepped closer to her. "I'm going out with one of the Javelins. If we can't stop them, though, this station here is going to be a big, fat target."
She nodded and looked him in the eyes, smiling. "If you make sure not to die out there today, I'll do the same."
"You better," he told her, leaning closer. "I don't want to go through another reincarnation before I see you again."
They shared a kiss and a moment later he was gone, flying towards the hangars. Hawkwoman looked after him for a moment, then went back to work.
"All Watchtower defense systems online," she reported over the com.
The Kryptonian-built defense satellites that Kara had put into orbit around the Earth were, like most Kryptonian tech, grown from crystals. Following the philosophy of Krypton's post-empire period, they were entirely defensive in nature. So as the first Dominator ships approached Earth orbit, the satellites did nothing at first. Until the satellites registered that weapons were powering up.
The first salvo from Earth's planetary defense net took the Dominators by surprise, as they had not expected so primitive a planet to have space-born weapons and their sensors had not locked on to what had initially appeared to be inert crystal structures. Five ships were taken out of the fight immediately, their engineering sections vaporized by searing energy beams that overpowered their shields. The Dominators overcame their surprise quickly, though, and returned fire at the now easily detected defense satellites.
That was a mistake, of course. The satellites were in essence little more than relays, created to absorb and redirect energy. Ever since their installation they had been absorbing solar energy to power their initial salvos, but when the Dominators fired on them, the crystals eagerly soaked up the energy of their weapons as well.
The second salvo of Earth's planetary defense net was far more devastating than the first and another twelve Dominator ships found themselves disabled and helpless. Unfortunately, the Dominators were far from stupid and quickly analyzed the technology they were facing. When the Dominion ships next opened fire, at least half a dozen ships concentrated their salvos on a single defense satellite each, rapidly overloading their energy absorption capacity.
Earth's planetary defense net managed to disable 37 Dominion warships in total before the final defense satellite was destroyed.
Kara and Clark caught up with the lead elements of the Dominator fleet around the same time that the last of the defense satellites died. Kara cursed in Kryptonian. While she had not had much hope that her defense net would stop the fleet, she had hoped it would hold out longer and buy them more time.
She sighed. Despite the technology at her disposal, she was still limited in resources. The Fortress could do many things, but it was intended as an outpost first and foremost. While it could create almost anything that Kryptonians had ever built, its output was limited. She would have needed to create a dozen more Fortresses, at least, to sufficiently cover an entire planet and defend it from a space-born attack.
She had hoped to have more time to bring humanity up to speed. The idea that an ancient space empire like the Dominion would take an interest in a primitive little backwater like Earth would have seemed preposterous even a year ago. Kara had only begun to plan for such an event after the Citadel War, when she had realized that other space-born races were basically just a stroll away. Too little time, though.
"What now, mom?" Clark asked, clearly seeing that the situation was quite dire.
The two Kryptonians kept moving at super speed and took out ship after ship, but Kara felt tired already and there were still so many of the ships left. Their force fields were formidable, smashing through them took a lot of energy. She was not sure how long Clark and she could keep this up. She briefly considered calling Kona up here to help, after having initially told her to stay on Earth and protect the farm and their family.
No, she finally decided. One more super-powered body would not make much of a difference up here. The Dominator fleet was simply too large. They would never be able to destroy them all.
They needed help.
"Clark, I need you to listen!"
Clark stopped beside her, looking at her face. "I'm not going to like this, am I?"
"There is a hyper-capable Javelin parked in low orbit around Neptune," she told him. "I need you to go there and take it. Fly the ship outside the jamming range of the Dominator fleet. Use the frequency programmed into the ship's computer to call for aid."
She could see the conflict on his face. His mouth opened, no doubt to protest being sent away while a war was taking place here, but he closed it again without saying a word. She could see it in his eyes the moment he realized that he was being given an important, essential mission. That she was not sending her little boy out of harm's way, but rather trusting her grown son to help save them all.
She was so incredibly proud of him.
"I'll be back with help as quickly as I can," he promised her. "Don't get killed while I'm away!"
She flew closer and embraced him.
"I promise, Clark! Now fly, Superman! Up, up, and away!"
He hesitated but another moment, then vanished in a blur of super speed.
General Blankenship did not really know much about space combat. No human did, after all. He did know enough about military operations and warfare, though, to realize how dire their situation was quickly becoming.
"That was the last of them," one of the technicians reported. "All of the unknown weapon platforms that opened fire on the alien ships have been destroyed."
"Superwoman's work, no doubt," he muttered, referring to those defense satellites none of them had known about.
They had certainly been far more effective than anything he had at his disposal. The US, Russia, and China had all launched a number of missiles at his command, the newest generation of ballistic vehicles capable of actually operating beyond Earth's atmosphere. Only a handful of them had actually reached their targets, though, without being picked off by laser beams. Those few had spent themselves against force fields that seemed none the worse for wear.
"We are picking up more weapons fire up there," another technician reported. "The Justice League Watchtower has opened fire and a number of their Javelin craft are also in combat operations."
"Too few," Blankenship muttered. "Far too few."
He shook his head. He was pretty sure that there was little he could actually do against that massive fleet up there, but he would be damned if he did not at least give it a try.
"Relay commands to all military forces. Air forces are to scramble and attack any and all alien craft that enter the atmosphere. All ground forces on standby and ready to repel landings. All missile-capable submarines on standby!"
His people were scrambling to relay his orders. Suddenly, though, the big view screen in front of him lit up with a new image. A face that could only belong to an alien appeared, a huge yellow face with monstrous teeth and a large red disc on its forehead.
"Attention, primitives," a voice thundered across all channels. "Your planet has been annexed by the Dominion. Resistance will not be tolerated. As I speak, our ships are taking position above several dozens of your major population centers. Cease all hostilities or bombardment will commence immediately. Surrender the planet! Surrender the Kryptonians! Or be destroyed!"
Stunned silence filled the room.
"Tell me that's a bluff!" Blankenship thundered, starting all the people before him.
"Uh... no, sir! We make out at least a hundred of the alien ships now in geostationary orbit above cities in Europe, Russia, North America, Asia... all over."
He cursed. It could still be a bluff, of course, but somehow he doubted that a species capable of building spaceships with laser guns and force fields did not have the capability of bombing a planet from orbit.
"Radio all forces," he ordered, feeling older than ever before. "Stand down to readiness! No attack on the alien forces without explicit orders!"
"Yes, sir!"
"And get me the United Nations Security Council on the line, immediately!"
"You heard?" Kara's voice came over the com.
"Yes," Batman replied, his steady voice belying the emotions churning through him.
"They've spread out around the globe," she told him. "I can stop maybe a dozen of them before they open fire, but no more. They will kill millions if we keep fighting."
"It seems we have no choice then," he agreed, though it pained him to do it.
"Justice League, stand down!" Kara ordered over an open channel. Then she switched to a heavily encrypted one. "Bruce, Diana! You're in charge now! Occupation scenario, follow the plans! Clark is on his way. Plan Sigma!"
"And what will you do, sister?" Diana asked, her voice steady despite the clear worry Batman could hear.
"The Dominators want Kryptonians," she told them. "I fear we will have to give them at least one."
Diving into Earth's atmosphere, Kara did her best to remain calm. They had planned for scenarios just like this. They knew what to do. Her friends and allies would do what she needed them to do, she was certain. Everything would work out in the end. Everything would be fine.
Rao, she prayed that she was right. They had had so little time to prepare. It had all happened so very fast.
"Kara-El to Fortress," Kara spoke into her com. "Lockdown! Stealth Mode! Begin mass production of items designated 'Tortoise' and 'Carrier' at best speed! Await further orders from designated command personnel Kona, Clark, J'Onn, Bruce, and Diana."
"Acknowledged, Kara-El," the primitive AI of the Fortress responded.
A brief glance north showed her that the Fortress, already almost indistinguishable from an iceberg, was now sinking underneath the surface and vanishing from sight. She just hoped that the Dominators' sensors were not better than Kryptonian stealth shields.
"Kara-El to Moon Base," she ordered next. "Extend stealth shield to cover Tranquility Base!"
Extending her vision powers to look up at the moon, Kara found no trace of the human-built lunar station anymore.
"Kona?" she made her final call.
"Mom, are you all right?" her daughter asked, sounding frantic. "What's going on? We heard the transmission from the Dominators."
"Kona, listen to me! Remember the plans we made for these scenarios! Bruce and Diana are in charge. Clark is getting help! Your mission is to keep our family safe and be ready to help the moment word is given!"
"Mom, I... I understand. I will be ready! I will protect our family, I promise!"
"I know you will, baby girl," she told her, a tear in her eye. "I will see you again soon, I promise!"
"I'll hold you to that, mom!"
She could see that a single Dominion warship was currently descending into Earth's atmosphere directly over New York. Directly over the United Nations building, to be exact. Speeding up, Kara met the ship even as it came to a stop roughly a mile above the city. Hovering in front of it, she raised her hands.
"Inform your superiors that I accept your terms," Kara broadcast over her com. "I hereby surrender myself and planet Earth to the Dominion."
End Chapter 86
Author's Note: If the name General Blankenship sounds familiar to you, then you probably remember it from the first season of the 1970s Wonder Woman TV show. Blankenship was the superior of Colonel Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner) and was played by Richard Eastham. Blankenship also has a few comic cameos to his name, appearing as the boss of Earth-2 Steve Trevor and Post-Crisis as a liaison officer for Hippolyta during her run as WW2 Wonder Woman.
Kara having built a moon base was briefly mentioned in chapter 83. Kara and her family first encountered the Dominion in chapter 74. The other events referenced by the Dominators at the beginning of the chapter were covered in chapters 36, 37, 54, and 77 respectively.
Up next: what do you do the day after Earth has been conquered by hostile aliens? Why, resist, of course!
